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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 







THE GBEAT HALL AT KAKNAK. 



Egypt Illustrated 



WITH PEN AND PENCIL. 



BV THE 



Rev. SAMUEL MANNING, LL.D. 
11 

AUTHOR OF 

"PALESTINE," "ENGLAND," ETC. 



NEW EDITION REVISED AND PARTLY RE- WRITTEN 

BY 

Prof. E. P. THWING, Ph. D., 

1 u 

AUTHOR OF "OUTDOOR LIFE IN EUROPE," "LIFE IN THE ORIENT," ETC 




New York 

HURST & COMPANY, Publishers 

134-136 Grand Street 



Copyright, 1891, 
BY 

HURST & COMPANY. 



ARGYLE PRESS, 

Book Manufacturers, 

265-267 Cherry St., N V 



G> 




TOMBS OF THE CALIPHS, CAIRO. 



PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION, 



'"PHE first edition of this book has been before the public for some years. Written 
with all the original author's brightness and skill, and dealing with one of the 
most fascinating countries on the globe, it deserved, as it has attained, a high'place in 
the popular regard. The lamented death of Dr. Manning prevented him from under- 
taking the work of revision that had become necessary in the course of years. Increased 
facilities for travel, many new discoveries illustrative of the ancient Egyptian life, the 

recent development of Egyptian scholarship, and the growth in number and greater 

s 



PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 

excellence in quality of engravings, depicting Egyptian people and places, have all 
combined to render a new edition of the book desirable. 

The public events of recent years have also tended to deepen the general interest 
in Egyptian matters. In fact, Egypt has a curious power of keeping herself well to the 
front in the international relations of the various European nations. In 1878, the 
obelisk, which now adorns the Thames Embankment, and upon which the eye of Moses 
probably rested once and again during his Egyptian life, was brought to England. In 
the following year Ismail Pasha abdicated, and the state of affairs reached a position 
which soon led to active interposition on the part of England. The crisis came in 1882. 
In June riots broke out in Alexandria, and large numbers of Europeans left the city. 
On July nth, Alexandria was bombarded, and the forts silenced. War followed, and 
on September 12th Arabi Pasha was defeated at Tel-el-Kebir, and banished. In the 
same year Professor Palmer was murdered by Bedouins in the Sinai region. 

In 1883 the troubles connected with the Mahdi began, and in 1884 the total rout of 
Hicks Pasha's army led to General Gordon's mission to Khartoum. This was followed 
by the British Expedition up the Nile for his rescue. In i885 the battle of Abu-Klea 
was fought, the expedition failed to reach Khartoum in time, and that city was taken 
by the Mahdi, Gordon losing his life. Soon after this the Mahdi also died, and the 
English troops retired to Assouan. 

Very naturally, this series of events did not pass without wide differences of opinion 
as to the policy and the justice of the part played by England. The extremes are 
represented, on the one hand by those who hold that England had no right to go near 
Egypt at all ; and on the other by those who think that England ought to take Egypt 
and govern it "in the interest of the natives," as she has done in India. But with all 
such divergencies of view we have nothing to do here. We allude to the series of 
events only because it is impossible in any work on Egypt to ignore them. The blood 
and treasure which England has spent during the last ten years in that ancient land have 
necessarily deepened the interest felt in it by all thoughtful readers. Deeds of bravery 
and heroism have not been lacking, whether we deem them to have been done in a 
righteous cause or not. And this volume, in its new and improved form, will help to 
make clear to those at home the land and the people on whose behalf they were done. 

The two chief events throwing light upon ancient Egypt have been carefully noted 
in this new edition. The first is that marvellous discovery at Deir-el-Bahari in 1881, 
by which we are enabled to look upon the mummied faces of mighty Egyptian Kings 
and Queens who flourished at the period of, and even long before the Exodus. The 
other is the establishment of the Egypt Exploration Fund, which bids fair to do useful 
work in the way of exploring ancient sites. 

The editor's object has been to alter the original work as little as possible. Lapse 
of time had rendered some statements obsolete, and had compelled the modification of 



PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 

others. The only entirely new portion is Section IV., which deals with events that 
have happened since the last edition was printed. A considerable number of the old 
illustrations have been omitted, and their space has been occupied by fifty-four of the 
best recent engravings illustrative of Egyptian natives, scenery, architecture and 
antiquities. 

The editor has also to express his grateful acknowledgments to Mr. E. A. Wallis 
Budge, M.A., of the department of Oriental Antiquities in the British Museum, not 
only for many valuable hints, but also for reading the proof sheets of a large part of 
the work. 

In this new and revised form, " Egypt Illustrated" is sent forth with the hope that 
it may tend to satisfy that desire for knowledge about the oldest kingdom in the world, 
which every intelligent general reader feels, and which is especially needful and inter- 
esting to the devout Biblical student. 

R. LOVETT. 




IN THE SUBURBS OF CAIKO. 




The Great Hall at Karnak 
Tombs of tlie Caliphs, Cairo 
In the Suburbs of Cairo 
The Stepped Pyramid at Sakkara 



FRONTISPIECE 

5 

8 

12 



SECTION I 



Alexandria to Cairo. 



General View of Cairo, with the Pyramids 

in the Distance 14 

A Street in Cairo 15 

Pompey's Pillar . . . . .16 

An Egyptian Dragoman .... 17 

Donkey-Boys at Alexandria ... 17 
Cleopatra's Needles as they were prior to 

1880 ....... 18 

An Egyptian Donkey-Boy ... 20 

Thothmes III 21 

The Buins of Tanis 21 

Girls coming to the Nile for Water . 25 

Sakieh 26 

Fellaheen at Work in Egypt ... 28 

Lattice Windows in Cairo ... 30 

An Egyptian Footman ... 31 

A Minaret in Cairo . . . . , 32 

A Cairene Woman and Child . . 33 

A Street in Cairo ..... 34 

A Water-Seller 35 

A Street in Cairo 36 

Interior of the M®sque of the Sultan 
Hasan . . . . . .38 



Bab Ez-Zuweleh or Bab El-Mutawellee, 
Cairo ."..... 

Sanctuary of the Mosque of Ibn-Tooloon 

Villa and Garden near Cairo 

Coffee-House in the Suburbs of Cairo 

The Nilometer ..... 

The Citadel at Cairo .... 

The Cemetery and Tombs of the Caliphs, 

Mosque of Mohammed Ali in the Citadel 
Cairo ....... 

The Obelisk of Usertesen I. at Heliopolis 

The Pyramids ..... 

Distant Yiew of the Pyramids 

Section of the Great Pyramid from North 
to South ...... 

Cartouche of Cheops .... 

Yiew of Gallery in the Great Pyramid 
from the Lower and Upper Landing- 
Places ...... 

Bust of Chephren in the Museum at Boolak 

Cartouche of Chephren .... 

Cartouche of Mycerinus 

Ascending the Great Pyramid 



PAGE 



39 
40 
42 
43 

44 
45 

46 

48 
49 
50 

52 

54 
54 



55 
56 
56 

57 
60 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



SECTION II. 



Cairo to Assouan. 



On the Banks of the Nile .... 62 

Money-Changer at Siont ... 64 

Crew of Nile' Boat 65 

A Dahabiyyeh or Nile Boat . . 66 

Kitchen of Nile Boat .... 67 
Plan of Dahabiyyeh for Four Persons, 60 

feet long 67 

Dhow or Trading Boat on the Nile . 68 
Prostrate Colossal Statue of Barneses II. 

at Memphis 69 

Barneses II. ..... 70 

Sarcophagus in Serapeum of Memphis . 71 

The Ibis 72 

Sand-storm in the Desert ... 74 

Ibis Mummy from Memphis . . 75 
Map of the Nile, from Alexandria to the 

Second Cataract 76 

The Death of the First-born . . 78 

Nile Cliffs 79 

An Egyptian Tillage .... 80 

The Call to Prayer 81 

Egyptian Fowler ..... 82 

The School of Sultan Hassan ... 84 

Watching Fields in Egypt ... 85 
The Papyrus Plant . . . .86 
Egyptian Entertainment ; each Guest with 

a Lctus Flower 87 

Lotus Flower and Leaf .... 88 

Manfalut 89 

Governor's Palace at Manfalut . . 91 
Portico of the Tomb of the Nomark Aneni 

at Beni Hassan ..... 92 
Visit of a Family of the Semitic Nation 

called Amu to Egypt .... 94 

Valley of the Nile at Beni Hassan . 95 



Christian Symbols at Beni Hassan . 96 

Sebak and Chnumis .... 96 

Bemains of the Temple at Abydos . . 97 
The Great Hall in the Temple of Abydos 98 
Portico of the Temple of Lender ah . 100 
Brick with the Cartouche of Barneses II. 101 
The Bamesseum, Thebes . . . 102 

Osiride Columns of Bamesseum, Thebes 103 
Palace of Barneses III., Medinet-Abu . 104 
Palace of Barneses III., Medinet-Abu . 105 
Columns of Temple at Luxor . . 106 

The Colossi of Thebes . . . .108 

Luxor ....... 109 

Propylon at Karnak .... 110 

Great Hall at Karnak . . . Ill 

Hypostyle Hall, Karnak . . . 112 

A Captive Jew of Shishak's time . 113 

Francois Champollion .... 113 

Sculptured Wall, Karnak . . . 114 
Columns and part of Obelisk of Thothmes 

III, Karnak 116 

Erment, or Hermonthis, near Thebes . 116 
Shishak and his Captives on Sculptured 

Wall at Karnak 117 

Tombs of the Kings at Thebes . . 118 
Frescoes in Tombs of the Kings at Thebes 119 
Harper in Tomb at Thebes . . . 119 
In the Tombs at Thebes . . -120 

The Judgment Hall of Osiris . . 121 

Soul visiting its Body, and holding the 

emblems of Life and Breath in its claws 122 
Edfou . . . . . • .122 

Portico and Temple at Esneh . . 124 
The Temple at Edfou . . . .124 
Grottoes of Silsilis . 125 



SECTION III. 



Assouan to Abu-Simbel. 



Landing-Place at Assouan 
Island of Elephantine . 
Amen, Isis, and Chonsu . 
Head of Bes . 



126 AKopticWoman 130 

127 Isis Columns with Eastern Colonnade and 

128 Pylon 131 

128 Interior of Great Court . . . .131 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



SECTION III {continued). 



PAGE 

Portico of Temple at PhilaB . . .132 

Christian Symbols at Philae . . 133 

Mud Huts 131 

Sheikh's House ..... 131 

Nubian Woman ...... 135 

Nubian Musicians ..... 136 

Pharaoh's Bed on the Island of Phihe 138 

A Eoadside Well 139 

Egyptian Girl 139 

Wooden Pillow 139 

Temple of Dandour .... 140 



Entrance of the Temple of Dekkeh . . 141 
Arabs in the Wady Sabooah . . 142 

Facade of Smaller Temple at Abu-Simbel 143 
Part of Facade of Great Temple at Abu- 

- Simbel " 144 

Great Temple at Abu-Simbel . . . 145 
Ethiopian, Negro, and Asiatic Captives 

before Barneses ..... 146 
Barneses slajdug a group of African and 

Asiatic Captives 146 

Menephtah, the probable Pharaoh of the 

Exodus ...... 147 



SECTION IV. 



Recent Discoveries in Egypt. 



Entrance Passage to the Empty Tomb of 

Setil. 118 

Crocodiles on the Upper Nile . . . 130 
Outer Mummy Case of Queen Nefert-ari . 151 
Maspero, Brugsch Bey, and Mohammed 

Abd-er-Basul 153 

The Profile of the Mummy of Eameses 

II 155 

The Head of the Mummy of Barneses II. 157 



Gold-faced inner Mummy case of Queen 
Nefert-ari ...... 

The Head of Seti I 

The Head of Pinetem II 

Entrance to the Tomb of Seti I. in the 
Valley of the Tombs of the Kings at 
Thebes 

Head of Queen Nefert-ari, Wife of 
Barneses II . 162 



158 
160 
161 



161 



SECTION V. 

The Suez Canal. 



View of Suez from the Canal . . 164 

M. Lesseps 165 

Line of Ancient Canal in the Desert . 166 

Zagazig, on the Fresh-water Canal . . 167 



Map of the Canal 168 

Port Said 169 

Caravan starting from Suez . . . 170 
Eantarah, near the Junction of the Canal 
and Lake Menzaleh .... 172 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



SECTION VI. 



Egypt to Sinai. 



Crossing the Desert 174 

Plain of Er-Rahah, Sinai, showing the 

Convent 176 

The Sinaitic Peninsula . . . 177 

Mount Serbal 178 

Wells of Moses .... 179 

Wady Gharandel 180 

Mount Serbal 182 

Euins at Serabet el Khadim . . . 183 

Sinaitic Inscriptions 184 

Sinaitic Inscriptions .... 185 



Flint Implements from the Sinaitic 

Peninsula 186 

Ras Susfafeh and Plain of Er-Rahah . ' 188 

The Wady Feiran 189 

The Convent, Sinai .... 190 

Superior of the Convent .... 191 

Entrance to the Convent, Sinai . . 192 

A Monk of the Convent, Sinai . . . 193 

Interior of the Convent, Sinai . . 194 

JebelMusa 196 

Archway on Mount Sinai .... 198 




THE STEPPED PYRAMID AT SAKKAEA. 



HP 



IfflillPlif 





A STREET IN CAIEO. 



SECTION I. 



Alexandria to Cairo. 



IN the dim gray dawn of a February morning, I was on the deck of the Austrian 
steamer Urano, peering eagerly through the mist to the southward. The clear 
crystalline blue of the Mediterranean had changed to a greenish gray, showing that we 
were in shallow water. As the sun rose, the haze vanished, and we could make out the 
coast line, a long stretch of sand, here and there broken by a hillock; a clump of palm- 
trees, an Arab village, or the white walls and dome of a priest's tomb. Then a forest 
of masts came into view, and, rising above them, a venerable column and a lighthouse. 
The column we recognize as Pompey's Pillar ; the lighthouse is the modern represen- 
tative of the famous Pharos of Alexandria, one of the wonders of the ancient world. 
We were approaching that mysterious land which had attained a high civilization, and a 
settled monarchy, when Abram " went forth from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the 
land of Canaan." * It was in its glory when the Hebrews were there held in bondage. 



1 Genesis xi, 31. 



15 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



It had passed its prime when David and Solomon sat upon the throne of Israel. It 
had sunk into decay when Rome rose to power, and at the dawn of modern history it 
had ceased to exist as a nation. Hebrew patriarchs, Greek philosophers, Persian, 
Macedonian, and Roman conquerors, have all been drawn hither, and its annals are in- 
extricably interwoven with theirs. It played an important part in the greatest event 
in our world's history, when Joseph "arose and took the young Child and His mother 
by night, and departed into Egypt : and was there until the death of Herod : that it 
might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt 

have I called My Son." 1 In later ages the 
land of the Pharaohs is ever coming into 
prominence. Among the early Christians, 
Cyril, and Athanasius, and Origen ; among 
the early Mohammedans, Amrou and Omar ; 
among the Crusaders, St. Louis of France, 
and Saladin, the chivalrous enemy of Richard 
Cceur de Lion, all lead our thoughts to Egypt. 
What wonder, then, that it was with a feeling 
of almost reverential awe, that I first gazed 
upon the soil which, for four thousand years, 
had been the scene of so many memorable 
deeds? 

The gravity of those of our party who 
were for the first time visiting Mohammedan 
countries was somewhat disturbed by the ap- 
pearance of the pilot who now came along- 
side. His dress was a curious combination 
of eastern and western attire, very character- 
istic of the mongrel population of Alexandria. 
It consisted of a Turkish fez, an Arab abba, 
baggy linen knickerbockers, and a pair of un- 
mistakable English boots with elastic sides. 
Having seated himself cross-legged on the 
gangway of the steamer, pipes and coffee 
were served, and he steered us through the in- 
tricate channel into the harbor of Alexandria. 
The usual scene of confusion now ensued. 
Scores of boats came round us, manned, as 
at Jaffa, by half-naked negroes and Arabs. 
I was seized by half-a-dozen fellows at once, 
each endeavoring to appropriate me. A similar conflict was going on over every ar- 
ticle of my baggage, and it was only by a vigorous application of the dragoman's whip 
that I and my belongings were rescued from them and stowed away in one of the boats. 
We only escaped from the hands of the boatmen to fall into those of the donkey- 
boys, who effectually dissipated whatever feelings of reverence yet remained. These 
Arab lads are surely the cleverest and most impudent little urchins on earth. Our city- 

1 Matthew ii. 14, 15. Hosea xi. 1. 
16 




POMPEY S PILLAR. 



ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. 



Arabs cannot compare with them. In broken English they vaunt the praises of their 
animals: "Take my donkey; him berry good donkey; him name Billy Barlow." If 
the traveler be presumably an American, the sobriquet is changed to " Yankee Doodle." 
One ingenious youth, whose only garment was a ragged cotton shirt, through which 
his tawny skin showed conspicuously, having tried 
" Billy Barlow, Champagne Charley," and half-a-dozen 
names beside, made a final appeal, by exclaiming, 
"Him name Rosher Tishburne ; him speak English ; 
him say, 'How you do, sar?'" It was impossible 
either to lose one's temper or retain one's gravity amid 
this merry clamorous crowd. At length we extricated 
ourselves from them and made our way to the hotel. 

Anywhere, except in Egypt, Alexandria would be 
regarded as a very ancient city. Its history goes back 
more than two thousand years, to the time of its foun- 
der, Alexander the Great, B.C. 333. But here, this ven- 
erable antiquity seems quite modern. It is a mere 
parvenue, which sprang up when the kingdom of the 
Pharaohs had run its course and reached its close. It 
is now a busy thriving port in which the east and west 
meet in strange confusion. Nubians, Arabs, Berbers, 
Greeks, Italians, French, English, Circassian pilgrims, 
Lascar sailors, Chinese coolies, jostle one another in 
the crowded streets. A string of camels pass with 
their burdens into the railway station. A Bedouin 
sheikh takes a ticket for Cairo, or wrangles over 

the price of a piece of Manchester goods. Hadjis from Mecca are waiting to go on 
board the steamer bound for Constantinople or Beirout. Sailors from the harbor, or sol- 
diers en route for India, shoulder their way through the bazaars. Go into a bank or 
counting-house, and you might fancy yourself to be in the heart of London. Step out 

into the street, and you see a devout Mus- 
sulman spreading his prayer-carpet in the 
roadway, and performing his devotions, as 
little disturbed by the bustle around him as 
though he were alone in the desert. 

The northern coast-line of Egypt is a 
sterile waste, consisting of little else than 
salt swamps, lakes of brakish water, and 
barren sand. The importance and prosper- 
ity of Alexandria are therefore due, not to 
the surrounding district, but to the fact that 
it is the port for the only African river 
which flows into the Mediterranean. Re- 
gions of boundless fertility stretch south- 
ward to the equator, through which the Nile flows and forms their sole means of com- 
munication with the sea. To the ancient world, Alexandria, which lay near the mouths 

17 




^7</ rA 



AN EGYPTIAN DBAGOMAN. 




DONKEY-BOYS AT ALEXANDEIA. 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

of this mighty river, formed the meeting-place of eastern and western civilization — the 
emporium of European, Asiatic, and African commerce. With the downfall of the By- 
zantine Empire, its glory departed. The Mohammedan conquest fell like a blight upon 
its prosperity, and the discovery of the route by the Cape of Good Hope gave the 
death-blow to its commerce. For many generations it was little more than an obscure 
village of the Turkish Empire. During the present century it has again been rising 
into importance. Its present population is estimated at a quarter of a million. In the 

year 1883, its exports reached up- 
ward of twelve millions sterling, its 
imports seven and a half millions. 
The opening of the Suez Canal di- 
verted the through traffic to India into 
the new channel. But other causes 
have since been at work, which have 
more than made up for the loss thus 
sustained, and the population and com- 
mercial prosperity of the city are rap- 
idly increasing. 

There are few remains of the an- 
cient splendor of the city of Alex- 
ander the Great and the Ptolemies. 
Pompey's Pillar and Cleopatra's 
Needles have no right to the names 
they bear. The former was erected 
by Pompeius, prefect of Egypt, in 
honor of the Emperor Diocletian (a. d. 
302). The monoliths of red syenite 
granite, covered with hieroglyphics, 
known as Cleopatra's Needles, form- 
erly stood at Heliopolis, where they were raised by Thothmes in., a Pharaoh of the 
eighteenth dynasty. 1 They were removed to Alexandria by one of the Caesars, and 
are doubtless the same which Pliny described as standing in front of the Caesarium. 
One of them has been removed to New York ; the other, presented to the British na- 
tion by Mohammed AH, was taken to that country and placed upon the Thames Em- 
bankment at the cost of Dr. Erasmus Wilson in 1877. 

On the downfall of the Hebrew monarchy, Alexandria became a new home to the 
exiled Jews. They so greatly increased in wealth and numbers, that at one period they 
formed a third of the whole population of the city. Numerous synagogues were built 
in the cities of Lower Egypt, and a temple upon the plan of that at Jerusalem was 
erected in the nome of Heliopolis. It was for the use of these Hellenistic Jews that the 
Septuagint translation was made, which had so important an influence in prepar- 
ing the way for the introduction of the Gospel, by making the Old Testament 
Scriptures known to the Gentile world. The history of this version is obscured 
by myth and legend. All that is known, with certainty, is that the translators 




cleopatba's needles as they were prior to 1880. 



> The mummy of this great monarch was discovered at Deir-el-Bahari in 1881. See Section IV. of this volume, al o Cleopatra' 's 
Needle. By-paths of Bible Knowledge, No. 1, pp. 119-121. 
18 




AN EGYPTIAN DONKEY-BOY. 



ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. 



were Alexandrian Jews, and that it was completed under the patronage of Ptolemy 
Philadelphus. 

A remarkable case of deliverance from persecution, and of punishment coming upon 
the persecutors, is recorded of the Jewish colony at Alexandria. Ptolemy Philopator 
(b. c. 217), being incensed at the refusal of the high-priest to admit him into the temple 
at Jerusalem, returned to Egypt and cast into prison all the Jews upon whom he could 
lay his hands. Those of Alexandria were confined in the Hippodrome, a vast am- 
phitheatre used for gladiatorial shows and public games. The king ordered that they 
should be trampled to death by elephants, made furious by wine and stimulating drugs. 
For two days the execution was delayed by the drunken carousals of the king. This 
interval was spent by the prisoners in ceaseless prayer to God for deliverance. On 
the third day the savage beasts were driven into the arena and urged upon the 
prisoners. But, instead of attacking them, they turned upon the guards and spectators, 
many of whom were killed, the rest fleeing in terror. 
Ptolemy was so impressed by this manifestation of the 
Divine power that he ordered the prisoners to be 
released, restored their privileges, and, as in the days 
of Esther and Ahasuerus, gave them permission to kill 
their enemies. 

The journey from Alexandria to Cairo is now al- 
most always made by railaway, a distance of one 
hundred and twenty-eight miles. The road first skirts 
the shores of Lake Mareotis, with myriads of pelicans, 
wild ducks, and other water-fowl swimming or wading 
in its brackish waters, or soaring in dense clouds over- 
head. The narrow strip of desert which forms the 
northern coast-line of Egypt is soon crossed, and we 
enter the Delta of the Nile, which continues almost 
as far as Cairo. The soil, a deposit of Nile mud, is 
of extraordinary fertility. The Delta used to be 
regarded as the granary of Rome. Innumerable 
vessels were employed in conveying the wheat grown 
in this district to the imperial city. In one of these 
the Apostle Paul was wrecked, and in another he 
completed his voyage to Italy as a prisoner. 1 The 
river formerly ran through it in seven channels. Five of these are now dried up, and 
two only remain, known as the Rosetta and the Damietta branches. The chanee 
was foretold by the prophet Isaiah : " The Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue 
of the Egyptian sea, and with His mighty wind shall he shake His hand over the river, 
and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod." 2 

It seems certain that the eastern portion of the Delta was the land of Goshen, in 
which the patriarchs were settled on their coming down into Egypt. It lay between 
Canaan and the residence of Joseph at On, or Heliopolis, for, on receiving tidings of 
the arrival of his father, "Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel 

1 Acts xxvii. 6-38 ; xxviii. n. 

1 Isaiah xix. 15 ; ix. 5. The literal fulfilment of this prophecy becomes still more apparent when it is remembered that the two 
mouths still remaining are artificial, not natural channels. 




THOTHMES III. 
From the Bust in the British Museum. 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



his father, to Goshen, and presented himself unto him." From the marvelous fertility 
of the soil it was well suited for a pastoral people, it was "the best of the land." 
Though belonging to the Egyptian monarchy, and used as a pasture-ground for Pha- 
raoh's cattle, it did not form part of Egypt Proper. Hence, it was allotted to a shep- 
herd race, where they lived without coming into offensive contact 'with the native 
population, " for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians." 1 It is probable 
that yet another reason for the settlement of his brethren in this frontier province 
suggested itself to the sagacious mind of Joseph. The nomad races of Palestine were, 
about this period, a serious peril to the Egyptian monarchy. The mysterious Hyksos, 
or shepherd kings, were a Canaanitish horde, who poured across the Isthmus, and, for 
a time, established themselves as conquerors in the Nile Valley. Whether this invasion 
had already taken place, or whether it was now an object of alarm, may be doubted. 
But, in either case, the location of a band of hardy and warlike herdsmen on the 
frontier, ,to bear the brunt of the first assault, was a piece of policy worthy of the 
wisdom of the illustrious Grand Vizier, who had already saved his adopted country 
from the horrors of famine. 

The most interesting city of this district was T'san, which in Hebrew becomes Zoan, 
in Greek Tanis, and in Arabic San. Tanis in all probability is referred to in Numbers 
xiii. 22, where we read, " Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt," 
and in Psalm lxxviii. 12, " Marvelous things did He in the sight of their fathers, in the 
land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan." For ages it was a great and powerful city, and at 
one period was the chief center of the Hyksos power. A king named Apepi in. was 
ruling there when Ra-Sekenen of Thebes (the recent discovery and unwrapping of 
whose mummy is referred to in Section IV.) led the national movement which resulted 
in the expulsion, eighty years afterwards, of the shepherd kings. Tanis was captured 
finally by Aahmes 1., and the hatred felt by the Egyptians toward the foreign dynasty 
which had so long ruled them led them to mutilate or destroy all existing monuments 
of the Hyksos rule, which had extended over a period of 5i 1 years. 

Until 1798 the site of Tanis was unexplored, and in that year it was only surveyed 
by the French engineers ; but between 181 5 and 1836 many of its antiquities were 
carried off and sold to wealthy collectors. In i860, Mariette uncovered the temple 
ruins, and in so doing revealed an enormous number of most valuable remains. The 
engraving depicts the site of Tanis at the time of his excavation. In 1884, Mr. Flinders 
Petrie explored the site anew under the direction of the Egypt Exploration Fund. 
Although productive of no exceptional discoveries, many most valuable antiquities 
were thus brought to light. 2 

In 1883, the same society sent out M. Naville to explore what was then known as 
Tel-el-Maskhutah, and was supposed to be the site of the ancient Raamses. 
M. Naville claims to have proved by his excavations that the site is Pithom, the ancient 
store city built by the Israelites, and that it is identical with Succoth, Pithom and 
Succoth being only different names for the same place. These results have not been 
accepted as final by all Egyptologists, but they all tend to increase our knowledge of 
what was anciently the Land of Goshen. 3 

As the train bears us slowly, and with frequent stoppages, over the district where 

1 Genesis xlvi. 28-34 ; xlvii. 1-6. 

2 See an interesting paper by Miss Edwards, in Harper's Magazine for October, 1886. 

3 See The Store, City of fithom, and the Route of the Exodus. By E. Naville. 

22 




5 

ft 
O 






ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. 

the sons of Jacob pastured their flocks and herds, we have abundant opportunities for 
observing the habits of the people. A wide expanse of verdure stretches to the very 
verge of the horizon. Groups of fellaheen, or peasantry, are seen sitting under the 
shadow of a palm grove, or lounging by the wayside, utterly indifferent to the intense 
heat, which makes the atmosphere quiver like the mouth of a furnace. Veiled women, 
clad only in a blue cotton skirt, come down to the river to fill their water-jars, and 
then, poising them on their heads, walk away with a firm, graceful step. A 
family pass along the road ; the husband, a big, stalwart fellow, rides a donkey ; 




GIRLS COMING TO THE NILE FOR WATER. 

the wife, bearing a load which would be 
heavy for an English porter, walks by his 
side ; a group of brown naked children run 

alongside the train holding out their hands and crying for backsheesh, and in this cry 
their elders join them whenever they have an opportunity. Notwithstanding this 
universal begging, I saw little or no actual destitution in Egypt. The wants of the 
peasant are so few, and the soil is so productive, and so easily cultivated, that every 
body, even the very poorest, seems to be well fed. Fuel costs nothing ; and drink, 
the curse of European countries, is unknown. A draught of Nile water, a handful of 
lentils, or a piece of bread, made like a pancake, and tough as wash-leather, are all 

2 5 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



Sj^SS^Ss--. 



that his necessities demand. Give him a little oil or vinegar, an onion or two, and a 
cup of coffee and he feasts luxuriously. A careful observation of the condition of the 
fellaheen convinced me of the accuracy of Miss Martineau's remarks : " I must say that 
I was agreeably surprised, both this morning and throughout my travels in Egypt, by 
the appearance of the people. About the dirt there can be no doubt; the dirt of both 
dwellings and persons, and the diseases which proceed from want of cleanliness ; but 
the people appeared to us, there, and throughout the country, sleek, well-fed and 
cheerful. I am not sure that I saw an ill-fed person in all Egypt. There is hardship 
enough of other kinds, abundance of misery to sadden the heart of the traveler ; but 
not that, so far as we saw, of want of food. I am told, and no doubt truly, that this 
is owing to the law of the Koran, by which every man is bound to share what he has, 
even to the last mouthful, with his brother in need ; but there must be enough, or 
nearly enough, food for all, whatever be the law of distribution. Of the progressive 
depopulation of Egypt for many years past, I am fully convinced ; but I am confident 

that a deficiency of food is 
not the cause, nor, as yet, a 



consequence. While I believe 
that Egypt might again, as 
formerly, support four times its 
present population, I see no 
reason to suppose, amid all 
the misgovernment and op- 
pression that the people suffer, 
that they do not raise food 
enough to support life and 
health. I have seen more 
emaciated, and stunted, and 
depressed men, women and' 
children in a single walk in Eng- 
land, than I observed from end 
to end of the land of Egypt." 1 
Though the Delta is not so entirely rainless as many parts of the Nile Valley, yet 
the productiveness of the soil is mainly dependent on artificial irrigation. The water 
left by the annual inundation is stored up in canals and reservoirs, and distributed over 
the soil by various devices. Sometimes a large wheel is run out into the river and 
turned by the force of the current. The floats of the wheel are made hollow, so as to 
take up a quantity of water. As they rotate, and begin to descend, the contents of 
each are poured out into a trench, or tank, rudely constructed on the bank. 

A more common method is the sakieh. In every part of Egypt we may see a 
rude roof of thatch under which a camel or buffalo plods round a worn path, turning 
a series of wheels cogged and creaky, drawing up an endless and dripping string of 
earthen vessels, which splash out their crystal gatherings into one leaky and 
common pool and thence, along a moss-clad shaft, into a little babbling rill of pure 
water flowing off on a bounteous errand. The groaning and creaking of these sakiehs 
is one of the most familiar sounds on the Nile. It becomes associated, in memory 

By Harriet Martineau, vo 1 . i. p. o. 




SAKIEH. 



1 Eastern Life, Present and Past. 
26 




FELLAHEEN AT WORK IN EGYPT. 



ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. 

with hot, sultry afternoons, spent in delicious indolence on the deck of a dahabeah, 
gliding downward with the current ; with cool evenings, when the stars come out in 
the deep blue of an Egyptian sky, to shine with a lustre unknown in our northern 
latitudes ; less pleasantly associated with restless nights, when the boat has been 
moored near one of these machines, and the incessant noise combines with rats, 
mosquitoes, fleas, and innumerable other plagues of Egypt to banish sleep. 

More common than either is the shadoof, a primitive contrivance consisting only of 
a long pole working on a pivot, a lump of clay, or a stone fixed at one end, a bucket 
at the other. For hundreds of miles up the Nile the river is lined with these shadoofs ; 
men, women, and children, either absolutely naked, or with only a strip of cloth round 
their loins, spending their whole lives in lifting water out of the bountiful river to 
irrigate their fields. No wonder that the ancient Egyptians worshiped the Nile, and 
that it needs all the force of Mohammedan iconoclasm to prevent the fellaheen of to- 
day from worshiping it too. The very existence of Egypt, as we shall see hereafter, 
is absolutely due to the river. Were its beneficent current to fail, or its mysterious 
inundation to cease, Egypt would again become a part of the desert from which it has 
been reclaimed, and which hems it in on either hand. 

The distribution of water over the soil is effected by means of trenches leading into 
small channels, these again into yet smaller gutters. Each plot of land is divided into 
squares by ridges of earth a few inches in height. The cultivator uses his feet to regu- 
late the flow of water to each part. By a dexterous movement of his toes, he forms 
a tiny embankment in one of the trenches, or removes the obstruction, or makes an 
aperture in one of the ridges, or closes it up again, as the condition of the crop requires. 
He is thus able to irrigate each square yard of his land with the utmost nicety, giving 
to it just as much or as little water as he thinks fit. This mode of cultivation is very 
ancient, and was probably referred to by Moses, when, contrasting the copious rainfall 
and numerous fountains of Palestine with the laborious irrigation of Egypt, he said, 
" For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from 
whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a 
garden of herbs : but the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and 
valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven." 1 

Though the trains on Egyptian railways are probably the slowest aud most irregu- 
lar in the world, yet some progress is made, and, in the course of a few hours, it 
becomes evident that our destination cannot be far distant. The broad expanse of 
verdure narrows as the Delta approaches its southern apex at Cairo. The tawny line 
of desert which bounds it on either side draws nearer. The Libyan and Mokattam 
ranges of hills, which inclose the Nile Valley, come into view. Then, those who know 
where to look for them, may make out, through the quivering haze, at a distance of ten 
or twelve miles, the most extraordinary group of buildings in the world. In approach- 
ing almost any other object of interest for the first time — St. Peter's at Rome, for 
instance, or Mont Blanc — there is a brief interval of hesitation and doubt before its 
definite recognition. But at the very first glance, without a moment's pause, we 
exclaim, The Pyramids ! They are at once the vastest and the oldest buildings on the 
earth. They were standing, perhaps were even already ancient, when Abraham came 
down into Egypt. Their origin was lost in the recesses of a remote and legendary 

1 Deuteronomy xi. 10, n. 

29 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



past, when the Father of History conversed with the priests of Sais and Memphis. 
It may have been bombast, but it was scarcely exaggeration, when Napoleon, on the 
eve of the battle of the pyramids, issued his famous ordre du jour, " Soldiers, forty 
centuries are looking down on you ! " And now, by a strange anachronism, we are 
gazing quietly out of the window of a railway carriage, at edifices which seems to be 
nearly coeval with the existence of man upon the earth. 

But our reveries are broken in upon by our arrival at the railway station, where a 
struggle like that at Alexandria awaits us with the hamfnals and donkey-boys contend- 
ing for the possession of our persons and baggage. Having extricated ourselves from 
their clutches with some difficulty, we make our way to the hotel. 

Cairo lies at the entrance of the Nile Valley, near the point at which the river 
branches out into the channels which form the Delta. Its modern name is a European 
corruption of that given to it by its Arab conquerors — El Kaherah, the victorious. 
By the natives it is called Misr or Masr, and the same name is given by them to the 
whole of Egypt. This is evidently a modern form of the Scriptural Mizraim, and 

affords another instance of the survival of 
ancient names through a long course of cen- 
|, turies, and after repeated conquests by foreign 
P' nations. 1 It is situated about a mile from the 
|||fc river. A long straggling street leads down to 
IK Bulak, which is the port ; and Fostat, or Old 
I Cairo, runs along the Nile bank. The popu- 
|l , lation of the city was given in the census of 
1 jjj 1882 as 368,108, but good authorities reckon 




LATTICE WINDOWS IN CAIRO. 



I it as 400,000 in round numbers. The resident 

Europeans amount to 2 1 ,000. 
I Those who wish to see the Cairo of romance, 
' and of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, 
should lose no time in visiting it, for it is being 
rapidly "improved off the face of the earth." 
The new quarter is but a shabby reproduction of 
modern Paris, from which all characteristic Ori- 
ental features, the graceful lattice-work windows, 
the overhanging stories, the picturesque color, have disappeared. The Ezbekeeyah 
garden has nothing but its semi-tropical vegetation to distinguish it from the public 
gardens of any European capital. Young Egypt, sallow-faced, and dressed in fez cap, 
baggy, ill-fitting black clothes, and patent leather boots, unsuccessfully affects the airs, 
and only too successfully cultivates the vices, of Parisian flaneurs. Said Pasha, who 
died in 1863, greatly benefited Egypt by his administrative skill and enlightened policy ; 
but since his day the old picturesque life of the East has been fast passing away, and 
a thin veneer of European civilization has been superimposed upon unalloyed native 
barbarism. That the sanitary condition of the city was horrible, and that improvement 
was urgently needed, cannot be questioned. If the Khedive had set himself to effect 
the necessary reforms by developing a system of architecture in harmony with the 
habits of the people, the requirements of the climate, and the characteristics of Arabian 



30 



1 See for numerous parallel instances Those Holy Fields, p. 89. 



ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. 



art, he would have done a good work. But the new Boulevards satisfy none of these 
requirements. They are simply poor imitations of a faulty original. And this applies 
to the whole system of administration. It is an exotic which has no roots in the soil, 
and no adaptation to surrounding conditions. 

But, as an American gentlemen said to me, "Cairo is a big place, and can stand a 
great deal of improving." In a few minutes we may pass from the Frank quarter into 
the labyrinthine windings of bazaars, which are almost unchanged since the days of 
Saladin, and in which " Haroun Alraschid, Giaffar, the Grand Vizier, and Mesrour, the 
chief of the eunuchs," might have wandered and found little to surprise them. The 
Mooskee affords us a good line of transition from the one to the other. We enter the 
main thoroughfare, broad for an Eastern city, with a Bavarian bier-halle at one corner, 
and at the other a shop for the sale of French 
books and photographs. The road-way is, of 
course, unpaved, but it is wide enough to allow 
a carriage to drive along it, with space for foot- 
passengers on either side. Each carriage is 
preceded by its running footmen — lithe, agile 
fellows, who can keep ahead of the horses, going 
at full speed, for an incredible distance. They 
wear a light dress of white linen, which leaves 
the arms and legs bare. Each carries a wand 
by day, a flambeau by night. Their duty is 
to warn pedestrians to get out of the way, 
which they do by incessant cries: "To the 
right ; To the left ; Look out in front," mingled 
with good-humored abuse of those who are 
slow to take their warnings. Lines of camels 1 
with their long swaying necks, soft, silent tread, 
and peevish groans, stalk solemnly along the 
middle of the roadway. A string of donkeys, 
surmounted by inflated balloons of black silk or 
white muslin, from which dainty little slippers 
of red or yellow morocco leather peep out, are 
carrying the ladies of a harem to take the air. 
Here comes a procession of blind men chanting 

the Koran, followed by a group of women wailing and crying in tones of well-simulated 
grief; between them is a board carried on men's shoulders and covered by a pall, be- 
neath whose folds it is easy to make out the rigid lines of a corpse on its way to the 

1 Barham Zincke's description of the came], though long, is too good not to be auoted. Its long neck is elevated and stretched 
forward. It is carrying its head horizontally, with its upper lip drawn down. In this drawn-down lip, and on its whole demeanor, 
there is an expression of contempt — contempt for the modern world. You can read its thoughts. " I belong," it is saying to itself, 
for it cares nothing about you, still you can't help understanding it. "I belong to the old world. There was time and loom enough 
then for everything. What reason can there be for all this crowding and hastening ? I move at a pace which used to satisfy kings 
and patriarchs. My fashion is the old- world fashion. Railways and telegraphs are nothing to me. Before the Pyramids were 
thought of, it had been settled what my burden was to be, and at what pace it was to be carried. If any of these unresting pale faces 
(what business have they with me ?) wish not to be knocked over, they must get out of the way. I give no notice of my approach ; 
I make way for no man. What has the grand calm old world come to ? There is nothing now anywhere but noise and pushing and 
money-grubbing ; " and every camel that you will meet will be going the same measured pace, holding its head in the same po- 
sition, drawing down its lip with the same contempt, and soliloquising in the same style. — Egypt of the Pharaohs and the Khedive. 

V- 




AN EGYPTIAN FOOTMAN, 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



cemetery. 



Shrill gurgling cries fall upon the ear, taken up and repeated by the female 

bystanders, perhaps with the accompaniment 
of a hautboy and a drum or two. It is a 
marriage procession. The bride, a mere 
child ten or twelve years of age, swathed 
from head to foot in red or yellow shawls, 
and inclosed in a canopy or tent, is being 
conducted to the bath or to her husband's 
house. 1 Veiled women, black slaves, Be- 
douin sheikhs, burly pashas, water-carriers, 
blind beggars, Greek and Coptic priests, 
donkeys and their drivers, and street-sellers 
innumerable, make up the picturesque and 
bewildering throng. 

The street-sellers in their number and va- 
riety would demand a chapter to do them 
justice ; and to interpret their cries require 
a far greater knowledge of Arabic than I 
possess. They form, however, so important 
and characteristic a feature in the aspect of 
an Eastern city, that they cannot be alto- 
gether passed over. I avail myself, there- 
fore, of Mr. Lane's help in the matter. 
"The cries of some of the hawkers are 
courious, and deserve to be mentioned. 
The seller of tirmis or lupins often cries, 
'Aid! O Imbabee! Aid!' This is under- 
stood in two senses ; as an invocation for aid 
to the sheikh El- Imbabee, a celebrated Mus- 
lim saint, buried at the village of Imbabeh, 
on the west bank of the Nile, opposite Cairo, 
in the neighborhood of which village the 
best tirmis is grown ; and also as implying 
that it is through the aid of the saint above- 
mentioned that the tirmis of Imbabeh is so 
excellent. The seller of this vegetable also 
cries, 'The tirmis of Imbabeh surpasses 
the almond." Another cry of the seller of 
tirmis is, ' O how sweet the little offspring 
of the river ! ' The seller of sour limes 
cries, ' God make them light ' or easy of 
sale. The toasted pips of a kind of melon 
called abdallawee, and of the watermelon, 
are often announced by the cry of ' O 

1 1 saw a curious illustration in the streets of Cairo of the irresistible innovations of the West, and the unchanging customs of the 
East. The bride was being taken home in a cab, but the canopy was tied over the roof, and hxed to the four comers, to represent 
the four poles which usually support it. 
32 




A MINARET IN CAIRO. 



ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. 



consoler of the embarrassed ! O pips ! ' A curious cry of the seller of a kind 
of sweetmeat composed of treacle fried with some other ingredients, is, ' For a 
nail, O sweetmeat!' He is said to be half a thief; children and servants often 
steal implements of iron, etc., from the house in which they live, and give them to him 
in exchange for his sweetmeat. The hawker of oranges cries, 'Honey! O oranges! 
honey!' And similar cries are used by the sellers of other fruit and vegetables, so 
that it is sometimes impossible to guess what the person announces for sale, as when 
we here the cry of ' Sycamore-figs ! O grapes ! ' except by the rule that what is for 
sale is the least excellent of the fruits, etc., mentioned ; as sycamore-figs are not as 
good as grapes. A very singular cry is used by the sellers of roses : ' The rose was 
a thorn ; from the sweat of the Prophet it blossomed.' This alludes to a miracle 
related of the Prophet. The fragrant flowers of .the henna-tree are carried about for 
sale, and the seller cries, 'Odors of Paradise! O flowers of the henna!' A kind of 
cotton-cloth, made by machinery which is put in mo- 
tion by a bull, is announced by the cry of ' The work 
of the bull ! O maidens ! ' " 1 

A familarcry in the streets of Cairo is that of the 
water-carrier- Sometimes he uses almost the very 
words of the prophet Isaiah : ' O ye thirsty, water ? ' 
He does not, however, go on to say, " without mo- 
ney and without price ; " 2 but for a small coin, less than 
an English farthing, he fills one of the brass cups which 
he chinks incessantly as he walks along. A more 
ambiguous cry, but one in common use is, "Oh, may 
God compensate me!" More frequently he exclaims, 
"The gift of Cod!" recalling the words of our Lord, 
speaking to the Samaritan woman of the Holy Spirit : 
"If thou knewest the gift of God, and who is it that 
saith to thee, Give Me to drink ; thou wouldest have 
asked of Him, and He would have given thee living 
water." 3 

As we leave the Mooskee behind us, and enter the 
purely native quarter, the streets become narrower, till 

at length a laden camel can scarcely pass, its burden touching the wall on either side. 
The upper stories of the houses, which project as they ascend, almost meet overhead, 
leaving only a narrow strip of sky visible. But even yet we have not penetrated into 
the innermost arcana of the bazaars. I was several days searching for the goldsmiths' 
bazaar before I could find it. At length, passing out of a very narrow street, through 
a dark and filthy archway, I found myself in a gloomy passage, in which it was impos- 
sible for two persons to walk abreast. On either side the goldsmiths were busy, each 
with his charcoal fire, blowpipe and anvil, producing the exquisite jewelery for which 
Cairo is so justly famous. Filigree work, fine as the finest lace, jeweled necklaces 
and nose rings, head-dresses inlaid with diamonds and pearls, were offered for sale, 
in dirty holes and corners, by men black with the smoke of the forge at which they 




A CAIRENE WOMAN AND CHILD. 



1 Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. By E. W. Lane, pp. 318, 319. 
8 Isaiah lv. 1. 3 John iv. 10. 



33 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



had been working. There was no display of wealth. Every article was brought out 
separately, and its price fixed by weight. Yet even here the intrusive West had made 
its way. Each Jeweler had at the back of his forge an iron safe made in London or 
Birmingham, in which his treasures were stored. 

The mosques in Cairo are very numerous, not fewer, it is said, than four hundred. 
Many of them are of considerable size and architectural merit. But, with the single ex- 

.... Jwi; ^ ception of that of Moham- 

Ali, 




med 
they are 
lapidation. 
assigned 
condition. 



recently erected, 
all falling into di- 
Many reasons are 
for their ruinous 
It is said that 
the Egyptians are deterred 
from repairing them by sup- 
erstitious feelings. Others 
ascribe the neglect to a de- 
cay of religious faith and 
zeal. The more probable 
explanation is, that the gov- 
ernment having confiscated 
the estates of the mosques, 
as well as those of private 
individuals, now fail to dis- 
charge the duty of keeping 
the edifices in repair. The 
mosque of Sultan Tooloon 
is interesting to architects 
from the fact, that although 
built a thousand years ago 
(a.d. 879), it had pointed 
arches at least three hundred 
years before their introduct- 
ion into England. That of 
Sultan Hassan, near the cita- 
del, is a building of great 
beauty, constructed out of 
the casing stones of the Great 
Pyramid. "It abounds," 
says Fairholt, "with the most enriched details of ornament within and without; not the 
least remarkable of its fittings being the rows of colored glass lamps hanging from its 
walls, of Syrian manufacture, bearing the Sultan's name, amid glowing colored deco- 
rations ; they are some of the finest early glass-work of their kind, but many are broken, 
and others hanging unsafely from half-corroded chains." Though this mosque is the 
boast and pride of the Cairenes, yet it is allowed to remain in a condition of filth and 
dilapidation which seems to prove that all religious zeal is dying out from the hearts of 
the people. 

34 



A STREET IN CAIRO. 



ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. 



The suburbs of Cairo, and the surrounding district, are very interesting. Weeks may- 
be spent in visiting and revisiting the many points of attraction. In the environs are 
charming villas, each standing in a garden, rich in all the products of a semi-tropical 
country, and abundantly supplied with water. As we ramble in the outskirts of the city, 
we often come upon an open space occupied as a fair. How like, and yet how unlike, 




A WATER-SELLER. 

an English fair! Swings and round-abouts are here, but dark-skinned, bright-eyed 
Arab youngsters have taken the place of our young hopefuls. Yonder is a serpent- 
charmer with necklace and girdle of snakes ; before him are half-a-dozen puff-adders, 
erect upon their tails, and waving to and fro with a rhythmic motion to the music of a 
rude guitar. Near him sits a story-teller, reciting in guttural Arabic some interminable 

35 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



tale from the Thousand and One Nights, the group seated round him listening with a 

fixed attention which noth- 
ing seems to weary. Jug- 
glers, mountebanks, and ac- 
robats are performing their 
feats precisely as we see 
them at home. Booths, 
constructed with a few poles 
and rafters, over which a 
vine has been trained, afford 
shadow to loungers who sit 
hour after hour, sipping coffee 
or sherbet, and listening 
to the dismal tones of a ta- 
rabookah or Nubian drum, a 
reed pipe, and a dulcimer. 
It is a merry, and yet a sad 
scene. These men are mere 
children, with no occupation 
for the present ; no care, or 
purpose, or hope, for the 
future. 

Continuing our ramble 
along the banks of the Nile, 
we cross a branch of the 
river to visit the Nilometer. 
It was built in the year 7 1 6 
a.d. by order of the Caliph 
Suleiman, and has been re- 
stored many times since that 
date. A pit lined with mason- 
ry is sunk to the level of 
the bed of the river, but the 
lower part is choked with 
mud and with the remains of 
the dome, which has fallen 
in. A graduated column 
rises in the • center indicat- 
in cubits the height to 




ing 



which the inundation reaches. 
The sixteenth cubit is called 
the Sultan's water, as the 
land tax is only levied when 
this height is attained. It 
is notorious that the official 

and the true record never agree. " A good Nile," as it is called, is from eighteen to 
36 



A STEEET IN CAIRO. 




INTERIOR OP THE MOSQUE OE THE SULTAN HASAN. 



ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. 



twenty-two cubits. Less than this leaves the soil insufficiently irrigated ; more than 
this drowns the country and inflicts immense mischief upon the peasantry. Every 
morning during the rise of the river criers go throughout Cairo proclaiming the level 
to which the inundation has reached. The announcement is awaited with intense and 




BAB EZ-ZUWELEH OR BAB EL-MUTAWELLEE, CAIRO. 



eager interest, for upon it depends the question whether the coming year shall be one 
of famine or of abundance. When the proper height has been attained the dams 
are cut, allowing the water to flow into the canals, and universal rejoicings prevail 
throughout the city. 

39 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

Perhaps there is no place in the immediate vicinity of the city which is visited and 
revisited with deeper interest than the Citadel. It stands on a rocky eminence which 
rises to the east of Cairo, and commands a magnificent view extending over the city, the 
desert, and far down the Nile valley. In this wonderful view the Pyramids form the 
most impressive feature. Though clearly visible, and within easy reach, they stand 
quite apart from the surrounding landscape. The narrow strip of cultivated soil along 
the banks of the river approaches, but does not touch them. The solitude and silence 
of the desert broods over them. The noise from the city at our feet falls upon our ears. 




SANCTUARY OF THE MOSQUE OF IBN-TOOLOON. 

Its busy life moves beneath our eyes. But nothing breaks in upon the sense of awful 
mystery and separation from the existing world which invests these venerable monu- 
ments of antiquity. 

A tragic interest attaches to one of the courts of the Citadel. In 1811 Mohammed 
Ali learned that the Mamlukes intended to rebel against him. He therefore invited 
their chiefs to be present in the Citadel on the investiture of his son Toossoom Pasha 
with the command of the army. Upwards of four hundred came. The ceremony over, 
on mounting their horses to ride away, they found the gates closed. At the same 

moment, a fierce fire of musketry was opened upon them from the windows of the 
40 




VILLA AND GARDEN NEAR CAIRO. 



ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. 

surrounding barracks. Resistance and escape were alike impossible. They galloped 
round the narrow inclosure, seeking, in vain to find a way of escape or an enemy 
whom they might attack. Men and horses fell in heaps in the courtyard. Only one 
of them, Emin Bey, survived. He leaped his horse over the precipice which forms the 
western front of the Citadel. The animal was killed by the fall, but he escaped as by a 
miracle, and reached a camp of Arnauts in the plain below, who refused to surrender 
him to the Pasha ; and he succeeded in making his way from the country in disguise. 
The soldiers who had taken part in the massacre were rewarded by being permitted to 
plunder the houses of their victims and to complete the extermination of the Mamlukes 
by slaughtering those who had not been present at the ceremony. Upwards of twelve 




COFFEE-HOUSE IN THE SUBURBS OF CAIEO. 



hundred are said to have perished. As we visit the splendid Mosque of Mohammed 
Ali, close to the scene of the massacre, it is impossiple not to remember with horror 
this frightful tragedy. 

Though few or none of the remains of the Egypt of the Pharaohs are to be found in 
Cairo, yet it stands in close proximity to some of the most important cities of the 
ancient dynasties. The site of Memphis, which we shall visit on our journey up the 
Nile, is only a few miles to the south. Heliopolis is still nearer. Passing out from 
the city, and leaving the Citadel and the tombs of the Caliphs on our right, the road 
leads, under avenues of tamarisk and acacia, through a richly-cultivated district. 
Soon, however, the limits of vegetation are reached, and we enter upon the vast tract 

43 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



of sand which bounds Egypt on every side. The line of fertility and barrenness is 
not, however, continuous and unbroken, Wherever a depression in the soil or an 
extention of irrigation brings the waters of the Nile to a point in advance of the 
ordinary limit of cultivation, there the desert " rejoices and blossoms as the rose." 




THE NILOMETEE. 



In one of these projecting points of fertile soil, immediately before we reach the site 
of the ancient city, is a garden, in the midst of which stands a venerable sycamore 
tree, hollow, gnarled, and almost leafless with extreme age. It is enclosed by 
palisades, and is regarded with veneration by the Copts as the place where Joseph, 
Mary, and the infant Saviour rested on their flight into Egypt. The fact that there 



44 



ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. 

was a great Jewish settlement in this neighborhood gives a certain measure of plausi- 
bility to the legend. The tree itself, though evidently of great age, cannot be as 
ancient as the legend affirms. 

The road now leads through a wide plain, covered with a luxuriant growth of sugar- 
cane. From amidst the broad green glossy leaves a single column of red granite rises, 
covered from summit to base with hieroglyphics. It is the sole relic above the soil of 




THE CITADEL AT CAIRO. 



the once famous City of the Sun — The Heliopolis ot Herodotus and Strabo, the 
Bethshemesh of Jeremiah, 1 the On of Joseph. 2 To this great university city of ancient 
Egypt, Plato, Eudoxus, and the wisest of the Greeks, came to be initiated into the 
mystic lore of the priests. Here, as Manetho tells us, Moses was instructed in all the 
learning of the Egyptians. This solitary column, raised about a century before the 

1 Jeremiah xliii. 13. 2 Genesis xli. 45. 

45 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



time of Joseph, looked down on his marriage with Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah. 
It has stood in its present position for nearly four thousand years, and is the sole 
survivor of the avenues of sphinxes, the temples and palaces, and colleges and obelisks, 
described by Greek historians. Even in Egypt we shall visit few spots invested with a 
deeper and more various interest than this. 

But the great excursion from Cairo yet awaits us — that to the Pyramids. I had seen 
them so frequently from a distance, and had been so deeply impressed by their solemn 
and solitary grandeur, that it was with an apprehension of disappointment that I started 
in the early morning to spend a long day in examining them more closely. Until re- 
cently, the trip was not without some difficulty. The Nile had to be crossed by a ferry ; 
donkeys were the only means of conveyance ; and the traveler must often go some 

miles out of his way 
to avoid a canal or 
a tract of land un- 
der water, or he 
must be carried 
over it on men's 
shoulders. Now a 
noble bridge is 
thrown across the 
river, and a broad 
highway, above the 
reach of the inun- 
dation, leads under 
an avenue of carob 
trees, past the 
Viceroy's palace, to 
the very foot of the 
plateau o n which 
the Pyramids stand. 
Lovers of romance 
and adventure 
complain of the 

change, and they hear with dismay that a branch railway is talked of. It is certainly a 
very prosaic affair to drive out to Gizeh in a carriage and pair, with as little risk or 
trouble as is involved in a trip to Richmond. But for those who have only a single day 
to devote to the excursion, the new road is not without its advantages. 

In about an hour after leaving the Ezbekeeyah, we see the Pyramids rising from the 
sandy plain, evidently close at hand. The first view is certainly disappointing. They 
are much smaller, and also much nearer, than we had supposed. Two hours was the 
time alloted for the journey thither, yet our watches show that only one has passed. 
We soon discover that we are under an optical delusion. The perfect clearness of the 
air, the want of any intervening objects to break the monotony of the plain, or to mark 
the distance, and the immense size of the Pyramids themselves, had led us to suppose 
that we had reached our destination when less than half of the distance had been 
traversed As we sped on our way, they loomed larger and larger before us, till at 

4C 




MOSQUE OP MOHAMMED ALI IN THE CITADEL. 




o 

o 

of 
W 



o 

w 
Eh 

o 



o 

Eh 



8 

o 

a 

EH 



ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. 



length, when we found ourselves at the foot of the plateau, they fully realized all our ex- 
pectations. I, at least, felt nothing of the disappointment and disenchantment to which 
many travelers have given expression. 

Vast and imposing as are the Pyramids even at the present day, it is important to re- 
member that we do not see them in their original condition. It has been said that, 
" All things dread Time ; but Time itself dreads the Pyramids." The destructive agency 
of man, however, has effected what mere natural decay was powerless to accomplish. 
The huge masses of masonry are indeed proof against the assaults alike of man and of 
time. But as originally constructed, they offered not the rough and broken outline up 
which we now climb, but a smooth and polished surface, perhaps covered with hiero- 
glyphics. For centuries they furnished quarries out of which modern Egyptians have 
built their cities. Though their beauty has been thus destroyed, their bulk is not per- 
ceptibly diminished. Abd-el-Atif, an Arab physician, writing in the twelfth century, 
when the casing stones were yet in their places, says ; "The most admirable particular 




THE OBELISK OP TJSEKTESEN I. AT HELIOPOLIS. 

of the whole is the extreme nicety with which these stones have been prepared and ad- 
justed. Their adjustment is so precise that not even a needle or a hair can be inserted 
between any two of them. They are joined by a cement laid on to the thickness of a 
sheet of paper. These stones are covered with writing in that secret character whose 
import is at this day wholly unknown. These inscriptions are so multitudinous, that if 
only those which are seen on the surface of these two Pyramids were copied upon paper, 
more than ten thousand books would be filled with them." One of these inscriptions is 
said by Herodotus to have recorded that sixteen hundred talents of silver were ex- 
pended in purchasing radishes, onions, and garlic for the workmen ; reminding us of the 
complaint of the Israelites : " We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely ; 
the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic." 1 

I Numbers xi. 5. The general opinion of Egyptologists is that the Pyramids were without hieroglyphics. The statements of Abd- 
el-Atif and Herodotus, however, are so precise, that it seems difficult to doubt them. 

49 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

If, as we stand upon the plateau of Gizeh, now covered with mounds of ruin and 
debris, we would picture to ourselves the scene which it presented in the time of the 
pharaohs, we must conceive of the three Pyramids as huge masses of highly-polished 
granite, the area around them covered with pyramids and temples, amongst which the 
Sphinx rose in solemn, awful grandeur to a height of a hundred feet. What is now a 
silent waste of desert sand would be thronged with priests, and nobles, and soldiers, in 
all the pomp and splendor with which the monuments make us familiar, while just 
below us, stretching along the Nile, the palaces of Memphis glittered in the sun. As 
we realize to ourselves this magnificent spectacle, we may understand something of the 




THE PYKAMIDS. 



self-denial manifested by Moses when " he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daugh- 
ter ; " and of his dauntless courage when he stood before the King, and demanded 
that he should let the people go. It was only as "by faith he endured, as 
seeing Him who is invisible," that he was able to rise to this height of heroism ; 
" choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures 
of sin for a season ; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures 
in Egypt : for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward." 1 

The following are the dimensions of these stupendous monuments, as measured by 
Mr. Perring. 2 

1 Heb. xi. 24 — 27. 

2 Baron Bunsen has justly pointed out that, in their present state of dilapidation, no admeasurements, however carefully taken, 
are more than an approximation. 

So 



ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. 



Sides of the base 

Slant height 

Perpendicular height. . . . 

Angle of elevation 

Area of the base, sq. yards 



ist Pyramid. 



2nd Pyramid. 



Present. 

Feet. 
746 
568 
450 

61.835 



Original. 



Feet. 
767 
614 

479 
51.20 

65.437 



Present. 



Feet. 
690 

563 
447 

5 3.o r 5 



Orginal. 



Feet, 
705 
577 
457 
52.21 
55>320 



3rd Pyramid. 



Present 



Feet. 
352 

203 



Original . 



Feet. 
352 
283 
219 
51.IO 



13.853 



The Great Pyramid is, therefore, more than half as long again on every side as 
Westminster Abbey, and, though deprived of more than thirty feet by the removal of 
its apex, it is still fifty feet higher than the top of St. Paul's, and more than twice as 
high as the central tower of York Minster. It covers thirteen acres of ground, equal 
to the area of Lincoln's Inn Fields, and is computed to have contained 6,848,ooo tons 
of solid masonry. 

The pyramid itself contains two chambers, which have received the appellation of 
the Kings and Qtieeris. The latter is lined with slabs of polished stone, very carefully 
finished, and artistically roofed with blocks leaning against each other to resist the 
pressure of the mass above. This apartment is reached by a sloping passage, which 
terminates in a gallery or hall twenty-eight feet high. From the entrance to the gallery 
a horizontal passage, one hundred and nine feet long, leads to the queen's chamber, 
which measures seventeen feet north and south by eighteen wide, and is twenty feet 
high to the top of the inclined blocks. 

The gallery continues to ascend till it reaches a sort of vestible, which leads to the 
King's chamber. This chamber is finished with as much care as the other, and 
measures thirty-four feet by seventeen, and nineteen in height. The north and south 
walls are pierced by two shafts or tubes, about eight inches square, slanting up through 
the entire fabric to the exterior of the pyramid. 

The King's chamber contained a red granite sarcophagus without a lid ; it was 
empty, and had neither sculpture nor inscription of any kind. The door was guarded 
by a succession of four heavy stones portcullises, intended to be let down after the 
body was deposited, and impenetrably seal up the access. The roof of the chamber is 
flat ; and, in order to take off the weight above, five spaces, or entresols, have been left 
in the structure. On the wall of one of these garrets, never intended to be entered, 
General Vyse discovered, in 1836, what had been searched for in every other part of 
the pyramid in vain. Drawn in red ochre, apparently as quarry marks on the stones 
previously to their insertion, are several hieroglyphic characters, among which is seen 
the oval ring which encircles the royal titles, and within it a name which had already 
been noticed on an adjoining tomb. On the latter it was read Shufu or Chufu, a word 
sufficiently near, in the Egyptian pronunciation, to Cheops, whom Herodosus gives as 
the founder of the largest pyramid. 

One of the most singular features in this pyramid is a perpendicular shaft descending 

from the gallery in front of the queen's chamber down to the entrance passage under- 

53 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 




extraordinary pre- 
go to confirm the 



ground, a depth of one hundred and fifty-five feet. The workmanship shows that this 
well was sunk through the masonry after the completion of the pyramid, in all proba- 
bility as an outlet for the masons, after barring the sloping ascent with a mass of granite 
on the inside, which long concealed its existence. The lower opening of the well was 
closed with a similar stone ; the builders then withdrawing by the northern entrance, 
which was both barricaded and concealed under the casing, left the interior, as they sup- 
posed, inaccessible to man. 

These 
cautions 

tradition related by Herodo- 
tus, that Cheops was not 
buried in the vault he had 
prepared, but secretly in some 
safer retreat, on account of 
violence apprehended from 
the people. As no other 
pyramid is known to contain 
an upper room, it seems not 
improbable that the queen's 
chamber was the refuge where 
his mummy lay concealed 
while the vault was broken 
open and searched in vain. 
Lepsius has shown that the 
Pyramids were constructed 
by degrees. The vault was excavated, and a course of masonry laid over it, in the first 
year of the king's reign. If he died before a second was completed, the corpse was 
interred, and the pyramid built up solid above. With every year of the king's life an 
addition was made to the base as well as to the superstructure, so that the years of the 
reign might have been numbered by the accretions, as the age of a tree by its annual 
rings. When the last year came, the steps were filled out to a plane surface, 
the casing put on, and the royal corpse conveyed through the slanting passage 
||| to its resting-place. 

^ ' ' The Second Pyramid stands about five hundred feet to the south-west of the 
First, and is so placed that the diagonals of both are in a ri^ht line. It is some- 
cheops. what smaller, but stands on higher ground. The construction is similar to the 
other, save that no chamber has been discovered above ground. It was sur- 
rounded by a pavement, through which a second entrance, in front of the northern 
face, descends deep into the rock, and then rises again to meet the usual passage from 
the regular opening in the face of the pyramid. From the point of junction a horizontal 
passage leads to a vault, now called by the name of Belzoni ; it measures forty-six feet 
by sixteen, and is twenty-two feet in height. It is entirely hewn in the rock, with the 
exception of the roof, which is formed of vast limestone blocks, leaning against each 
other and painted inside. When discovered, this vault contained a plain granite 
sarcophagus, without inscription, sunk into the floor. The lid was half destroyed, 

and it was full of rubbish. Some bones found in the interior turned out to be the 

54 



SECTION OF THE GREAT PYRAMID FROM NORTH TO SOUTH. 

1. SUBTEBBANEAK VAULT. 2. QUEEN'S CHAMBEB. 3. KlNGS CHAMBER. 



ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. 



remains of oxen ; but the sarcophagus was not large enough to admit more than a 
human mummy. Besides the large vault, Belzoni found a smaller one, eleven feet 
long, and a third, measuring thirty-four feet by ten, and eight feet five in height, but 
neither contained any sepulchral remains. 

The general workmanship of this pyramid is inferior to that of the larger one. It re- 
tains its outer casing for about one hundred and fifty feet from the top, and is, conse- 
quently, more difficult of ascent. No name has been found on any part of the Second 
Pyramid, and its erection is not mentioned by Manetho. A tradition preserved by Di- 
odorus assigned it to Amasis ; but an ad- 
jacent tomb contains an inscription to a 
royal architect, in which the monarch is 
called Shafra the Great of the Pyramid, 
and this has been supposed to be 
Chephren, the brother of Cheops, to 
whom Herodotus ascribes the Second 
Pyramid. 

The Third or Red Pyramid — so called 
from the color of the granite casing which 
covered the lower half, and has protected 
its base from diminution — is described by 
the classical writers as the most sumptuous 
and magnificent of all. It certainly sur- 
passes the other two in beauty and regu- 
larity of construction. It covers a suite of 
three subterranean chambers, reached as 
usual by a sloping passage from the north- 
ern face. The first is an ante-room twelve 
feet long, the walls paneled in white stucco. 
Its door was blocked by huge stones, and 
when these had been removed, three granite 
portcullises, in close succession, guarded 
the vault beyond. In this apartment, 
which measures forty-six feet by twelve, 
and is nearly under the apex of the pyra- 
mid, a sarcophagus had apparently been 
sunk, but none remained. The floor was 
covered with its fragments as Perring sup- 
posed in red granite ; and Bunsen ascribes the fracture to Egyptian violence. Others, 
however, imagine these fragments to be only the chippings made by the masons in 
fitting the portcullises. 

Beyond and below this vault is a second, somewhat smaller, in which General Vyse 
found an elegant sarcophagus of basalt : " the outside was very beautifully carved in 
compartments in the Doric style," or rather " had the deep cornice which is character- 
istic of the Egyptian style." It was empty, and the lid was found broken in the 
larger apartment. This valuable relic being very brittle, and in danger of disappearing 
under the curiosity of visitors, General Vyse removed the sarcophagus with great 

55 




VIEW OF GALLERY IN THE GREAT PYRAMID, FROM 
THE LOWER AND UPPER LANDING-PLACES. 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



difficulty, and embarked it for England in 1838, but the vessel which conveyed it 
unfortunately went down off the coast of Spain. 

The Red Pyramid was opened by the Moslems in the thirteenth century, when, the 
narrator states, " nothing was found but the decayed rotton remains of a man, but 
there were no treasures, excepting some golden tablets, inscribed with characters which 
nobody could understand." Some portion of the remains were found in the outer 
apartment, which are now deposited in the British Museum. Amongst them was the 
lid of a sarcophagus inscribed with an epitaph containing the king's name, which is at 
once identified with Mycerinus, to whom Herodotus attributes the erection of the pyramid. 
At the eastern edge of the platform of Gizeh stands the Great Sphinx, a 

fabulous monster, compounded of the bust of a man with the 
body and legs of a lion. This combination is supposed to 
symbolize the union of intellect and power required in a 
king. The conception originated apparently in Thebes, and 
seems as intimately connected with that city as the pyra- 
mid is with Memphis. This gigantic monster is consequently 
some centuries later than the neighboring Pyramids. Bunsen 
is inclined to assign it tc Thothmes IV., who is represented, 
in a tablet on the breast of the Sphinx, offering incense and 
libations. 

It is carved out of the living rock, excavated for the pur- 
pose to a depth of above sixty feet. The sands had so accu- 
mulated about the figure, that only the head, neck, and top of 
the back were visible, when Caviglia began to excavate the 
front in 1817. In recent years it has been wholly uncovered 
by M. Mariette. The figure lies with its face to the Nile, 
with the paws protruding, in an attitude of majestic repose. 
The contenance has the semi-negro, or ancient Egyptian cast of features, but is much 
injured by the Arabs hurling theii spears and arrows at the idol. Fragments 
of the beard have been found, and some traces of red remain on the cheeks, 
which are perhaps of a later date. The head was covered with a cap, of which, 
only the lower part remains. It is named in the hieroglyphics Hor-em-Khoo, 
" Horus in the horizon ; " that is to say, the Sun-god, the type of all the kings. 

The height from the crown of the head to the floor between the paws is 
seventy feet; the body is a hundred and forty feet in length, and the paws pro- 
trude fifty feet more. Between them was the altar or temple where sarifices were 
offered to the deity, which was apparently the Genius of the Theban monarchy. 
Rameses the Great is among the worshippers, and inscriptions on the paws testify to 
the continuance of the rite in the Roman age. A small building on the steps in front 
is inscribed to the Emperor Severus, who visited Egypt a.d. 202. 

From the floor, where the altar stood, a flight of forty-three steps ascended to a 
platform, whence an inclined plane led to the top of the rock facing the Sphinx. The 
whole intermediate space had been excavated with prodigious labor. Nothing could 
be grander than the appearance of this mysterious creature fronting the worshippers, 
and rising more and more over their heads, as they descend the long flight of steps to 

lay their offerings at its feet 
56 




BUST OF CHEPHBEN IN THE 
MUSEUM AT BOOLAK. 



^ 



Cartouche 

°/ 

Chephren. 



1/ 



ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. 

The platform of Gizeh abounds in tombs of various ages, and more than a hundred 
have been opened by Lepsius. One adorned with pillars, and brilliantly painted, was 
the resting-place of a Prince Merhet, a priest, and, as Lepsius thinks "more than 
probable," a son, of Chufu ; he is described as " superintendent of the royal buildings." 
From these tombs the enthusiastic explorer says — " I could almost write a court and 
state directory of the time of King Cheops or Chephren." 1 In another row of tombs 
Lepsius imagines he has discovered the remains of the Fifth Dynasty, hitherto sup- 
posed to have reigned at Elephantine contemporaneously with the Fourth at Memphis ; 
but we must certainly hesitate to accept his conclusions, when he tells us " these are 
formed into one civilized epoch, dating about the year 4000 B.C." 1 The common fault 
of Egyptologists is to assume a chronology in their own minds, and then attach it to 
the monuments, as if it were inscribed on them in unmistakable characters. Lepsius 
acknowledges that he has " not found a single cartouche that can be safely assigned to 
a period previous to the Fourth Dynasty. The builders of the Great Pyramid seem to 
assert their right to form the commencement of monumental history." The date of 
his " civilized epoch," therefore, will depend on that of the Pyramids, which no sober 
chronology places higher than 2400 B.C., while much may be said for a later date. 

The ascent of the Great Pyramid is a rather laborious task. The great blocks 
of stone form a series of steps of unequal height, varying from two to four or five 
feet. A tribe of Arabs occupying a village at the foot claim the right to assist 
travellers. Their sheikh levies a tribute of two shillings upon each person 
making the ascent, and appoints two or three of his people to help him up. 
The difficulty is thus materially diminished, and the magnificant view from the ^^^ 
summit — even finer, in some respects, than that from the Citadel — amply re- 
pays the traveler for the toil he has undergone. The desert stretches to the verge of 
the horizon. A narrow valley, inclosed by the Libyan and the Mokattam Mountains, 
runs to the southward. In the center of this valley the noble river is, seen winding 
along, with a belt of verdure on either side. The emerald green of the cultivated soil 
contrasts finely with the red of the mountains and the tawny sand of the desert. The 
pyramids of Sakkara, the palm groves of Mitrahenny, Cairo, with its innumerable min- 
arets and cupolas, and the Citadel seated on its rocky height above the city, make up 
a picture which can scarcely be equalled, and which once seen can never be forgotten. 

It is difficult, however, to abandon oneself to the full enjoyment of the scene. Crowds 
of Arabs follow the party to the summit, and pester them with entreaties for backsheesh, 
or with clamorous recommendations of the forged antiquites they have for sale. They 
are merry, good-humored fellows, quick at taking a joke, and great as the annoyance 
may be, it is impossible to lose one's temper. I tried the effect of a retort upon them 
by asking backsheesh in return. One ragged scoundrel drew himself up with a digni- 
fied air, and putting his hand into some mysterious pocket of a cotton shirt, the only 
garment he possessed, drew out a small coin worth about half a farthing. Putting it 
into my hand with a condescending gesture, he folded his arms and walked away, amidst 
shouts of laughter from his comrades. To one of the dealers in forged antiquities, I 
said, "I shan't buy those ; they were made in Birmingham." A rival trader plucked 
me by the coat, and said, " No, Mr. Doctor, his were not made in Birmingham ; his were 
made in London;" and then preceded to vouch for his own as bono anticos. One 

J Letters, iv. 

57 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

great feat is for an Arab to leap down the side of the First Pyramid, run across the in- 
tervening space of desert sand, and up the Second Pyramid in nine minutes. The sheikh 
was demanding a shilling apiece from the twenty-four Europeans who were on the 
summit. I remonstrated, saying that a dollar for the whole was the regular tariff. The 
sheikh drew me aside and whispered in my ear, " Mr. Doctor, you say nothing, and pay 
nothing." When he came round to collect the money from the contributers, he passed 
me by with a merry wink and shrug of his shoulders. A member of our party had a 
very powerful opera-glass, which he lent to one of the Arabs. Mohammed, looking 
through it, was beyond measure astounded to see not only his village in the plain below, 
but his two wives, Fatima and Zuleika, gaily disporting themselves in his absence, little 
thinking that "he held them with his glittering eye." When he had given free vent to 
his feelings, I said to him, " Mohammed, how do you keep two wives in order? We in 
England find one quite as much as we can manage with advantage ; sometimes rather 
more." He replied, " Oh, Mr. Doctor, dey berry good ; dey like two sisters ; I give 
them much stick ;" and I have no doubt that they had a good deal of stick on his return 
home. 

All this may seem quite out of keeping with the feelings proper to a visit to the Pyra- 
mids — as no doubt it is — but I have been so much annoyed by the unreality and senti- 
mentalism of many books of travel, that I prefer to state facts exactly as they happened. 
The gift of a shilling to the sheikh, on condition that he allowed no one to speak to me 
for a quarter of an hour, at length secured a brief interval of quiet, in which I abandoned 
myself to the undisturbed enjoyment of the scene and its associations. What a wonder- 
ful history is unrolled before us as we look around ! Across that waste of sand, which 
stretches away to the north-east, came Abram and Sarai his wife, and his nephew Lot, 
to sojourn in the land. The young Hebrew slave, who should rise to be second only to 
Pharaoh, is brought by the same route, and is followed once and again by his brethern 
seeking corn in Egypt. Where the palm-trees cluster so thickly round the ruined 
mounds on the banks of the river, Moses and Aaron stood before the king, and de- 
manded that he should let the people go. It was across the plain at our feet that the 
armies of Shishak and Pharaoh Necho marched for the invasion of Palestine. Here, 
too, came the fugitives, Jeroboam, Urijah, and others, 1 seeking refuge amongst their an- 
cestral enemies. Near that obelisk of red granite rising amid the glossy green of the 
sugar-canes, Joseph married his wife : and when the Jewish monarchy had fallen, Onias, 
the high-priest, erected a temple upon the plan of that at Jerusalem for his brethern who 
had settled in Egypt. There, too, if we may trust tradition, the infant Saviour was 
brought when escaping from the wrath of Herod the king. Turning from sacred to se- 
cular history, memories of Persian, Macedonian, and Roman conquerors — Cambyses, 
Alexander, and Caesar — start into life as we look down upon the plain. Again the scene 
changes, as Amrou and Omar unfurl the banner of the False Prophet, and wrest the 
richest province of the empire from the enfeebled hand of the Byzantine rulers. Again, 
as we gaze, we seem to see at the head of his armies the magnificent Emir Yusef Salah- 
e'deen march from Cairo to confront the Crusaders under Richard the Lion-hearted, 
King of England, and, having given some of its most romantic chapters to modern his- 
tory, to return, and dying, send his shroud round the city, whilst criers went before it, 
exclaiming, "This is all that remains of the pomp of Saladin." Coming down to our 

1 I Kings xi. 40 ; xiv. 25, 26 ; Jeremiah xxvi. 21 ; xli. 17 ; xliii. 7. 
53 




ASCENDING THE GREAT PYRAMID. 



ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. 

own times, we cannot forget the Battle of the Pyramids, when a small compact French 
army withstood the attack of 60,000 Mamlukes and compelled them to retreat, leaving 
1 5,ooo dead upon the field. In the four thousand years over which the history of 
Egypt extends, what generations have lived and died, what empires have risen and flour- 
ished and decayed ! Surrounded, by these affecting memorials of bygone ages, we seem 
to hear a voice sounding from the silence of the past, and saying, "All flesh is grass, and 
all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field : the grass withereth, the flower 
fadeth : . . . but the word of our God shall stand for ever." 1 

^ I=aiah xl. 6, 8. 




61 




ON THE BANKS OF THE NILE. 



SECTION II. 



Cairo To Assouan. 



u /*""** AIRO to Assiut direct by railway!" Grotesque as this sounds, it has for some 
^- > years been possible, a railway having been constructed over the 230 miles 
separating the two towns. Few persons, however, would care to do the Nile in 
this fashion. 

The traveler, who wishes really to enjoy the journey, has the choice of two prefer- 
able modes of transit. He may go by steamer or by dahabiyyeh. If pressed for time 
and of limited purse, he must needs choose the former. If he is able to control abund- 
ant supply of money and time, he may choose the latter. Since 1870 the steamer 
arrangements on the Nile have been passing more and more completely under the 
control of Messers. T. Cook & Son. This firm has now almost a monopoly of the 
steamer traffic on the Nile. The result is that a regular service of boats runs between 
Cairo and the First Cataract twice weekly during the season, from November to 
March. New steamers, constructed with a knowledge of all the special requirements 
of the service, have begun running this year (1886) ; and what used to be both a 
formidable and costly journey, is now within the reach of all who can afford to' visit the 

East. Travelers who make the journey by dahabiyyeh often find that the smoothness 
62 




MONEY-CHANGER AT SI OUT. 



CAIRO TO ASSOUAN. 

and enjoyment of the trips are increased by leaving the needful arrangements in the 

hands of the same firm. 

The chief advantage of the steamboat trip is that we are able to run rapidly past the 
uninteresting portions of the river. The Nile scenery is for the most part dull and 
flat. On a dahabiyyeh we may find ourselves becalmed for days off a mud-bank or a 
long stretch of sand, with nothing to do except watching the antics or listening to the 
monotonous singing of the crew. If, weary of waiting for a wind, the crew are ordered 
to tow the boat against the stream, the progress is exceedingly slow and tedious — six 
or eio-ht miles a day are the utmost that can be accomplished. 

But steamboat speed is not secured without great compensating disadvantages. 




CREW OF NILE BOAT. 



The delicious sense of repose, the Oriental Kief, the Italian dolce far niente, which 
constitutes so large a part of the enjoyment of the Nile trip, is impossible on board a 
steamer. Though the rate of progress be slow as compared with that on European 
or American waters, it is yet far too rapid to let us abandon ourselves to the lotus- 
eating indolence which is so refreshing to the wearied frame and over-wrought 
brain of the traveler in search of health. Then, too, it is impossible to linger 
where we please. We must hurry on. Two hours may be enough for the tombs of 
Bern Hassan, three hours for the temple of Esneh, four days for Luxor and Karnak ; 
but it is distressing to feel that we cannot stop if we like. Haunted by the fear of 
being to late, we complete our survey, watch in hand, to be sure of catching the 

65 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

steamer before she leaves her moorings in the river. The risk of finding uncongenial 
company on board is likewise not inconsiderable. In a public conveyance it is not 
possible to choose one's fellow-travelers, and it may happen that our meditations on 
the grand memories of the past are being perpetually broken in upon by " men whose 
talk is of bullocks." A very serious objection to th old steamers used to be their 
scandalously dirty condition, and the swarms of vermin with which they were infested. 
This, of course, does not now apply ; the new vessels being as clean and as comfortable 



as the most fastidi- 
who have ample means 
within themselves, or in 
days or weeks on board a boat 
Nile trip in a dahabiyyeh is one 
of the most delightful excursions in 
the world. To others the steamer offers 
a very fair subsitute. 

But what is a dahabiyyeh ? The 
dahabiyyeh, gentle reader, is a boat in 
form and outline not unlike the barges of 
the City Companies in the days when the 
Thames was to Londoners what the Nile 
is to the Egyptians. Its saloons and 



ous can desire. Nevertheless, for those 
and leisure, and who have resources 
their party, to bear the monotony of some 
with nothing to do and little to see, the 




A DAHABIYYEH OR NILE BOAT. 



cabins are on deck. Some are luxuriously fitted up, room being found even for a piano. 
They differ in size, affording accommodation for from two to six or eight passengers. 
For the crew no sleeping accommodation whatever is provided. They roll themselves up 
in their burnouses and lie down on the fore-deck like bundles of old clothes, for which I 
have not infrequently mistaken them. The boat is worked by two large triangular sails 
fitted to masts fore and aft, and there are benches for rowers when needed. The 
resemblance between the Nile boats of the present day and those of the ancient 
Egyptians, as depicted on the monuments, has been often noticed. "Joseph, in the 

66 



CAIRO TO ASSOUAN. 



flush 01 power, probably journeyed thus through Egypt, only, of course, with a royal 
magnificence and splendor of appointment to be dreamed of rather than described. 
All the travel of those days between the upper and lower country, the traffic of Thebes 
and Memphis, would be done in such vessels. It must be remembered, that, although 




PLAN OP DAHABIYYEH, POR POUR PERSONS, SIXTY FEET LONG. 

Egypt is nearly eight hundred miles in length, its average breadth is only ten or twelve, 
of which the river is the great feature, the center and source of fertility and wealth. 
Thus every city was by the water side. Egypt was emphatically "a place of broad 
rivers and streams," white, in those palmy days, with the swelling sail of many a gal- 
lant ship, and populous with galleys. So conservative, too, in its customs was it, that 
even the Ptolemies and Romans were forced to follow them. Thus perhaps Cleopatra's 
famous barge may have been but a gorgeous dahabiyyeh : 

" The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne, 

Burned on the water, the poop was beaten gold. 

Purple the sails, so perfumed that 

The winds were love-sick with them : the oars were silver, 

Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke." 

Dahabiyyehs run up the river without stopping, except when becalmed or to lie-to for 
the night. Places of interest are visited on 
the return to Cairo. It will, however, suit 
our convenience better to take them in reverse 
order. 

Our first halting-place will be Bedresheyn, 
fifteen miles from Bulak, to visit the site of 
ancient Memphis and the Pyramids of Sak- 
kara. There is a curious Mussulman tradi- 
tion in connection with this village, from which 
its name is said to have been derived. The 
orthodox creed of Islam is that women will be 
saved like men, and will be made young 
again on entering heaven. This legend, how- 
ever, affirms that there is one exception to 
the rule. Joseph, when Grand Vizier of Egypt, 
was riding out from Memphis, when an 
aged woman accosted him and implored alms. So wrinkled and deformed 
was she, that he could not help exclaiming, "How ugly thou art!" "Pray, then, to 
Allah," she replied, "that he would make me young and beautiful. He hears all thy 
prayers, and grants whatever thou dost ask." Thereupon Joseph lifted up his hands 
and prayed for her as she requested. Instantly she stood by his side transformed into a 

67 




KITCHEN OP NILE BOAT. 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

lovely girl — so lovely that he was enamored of her and made her his wife. She lived 
long, and survived him for many years. Dying in extreme old age, she went to heaven, 
an old woman, the only old woman there : for Allah makes all good women young 
again once, but once only, and she can never be made young again. 

The road from the village leads through one of the most luxuriant palm 
forests to be found in Egypt. Our boat was moored for the night close 
to the point where an avenue of trees came down to the river-bank. The full 
moon was shining with wonderful brilliancy, pouring a flood of light over the 
landscape, of which we, in these northern latitudes, can form little conception. I 
went ashore and wandered for hours among the tall columnar stems and under the 
graceful feathery crowns of the palm-trees. A party of villagers, too astonished even 




DHOW OR TRADING BOAT ON THE NILE. 

to ask for backsheesh, came out to gaze at the strange sight of a European wandering 
about after nightfall. On my expressing a wish for some of the fronds which hung 
overhead, a lithe, agile fellow clambered up like a monkey and plucked half-a-dozen 
for me. Among the many pleasant memories which I brought back from Egypt, there 
are none more pleasant than that of the moonlight walk through the palm groves 
of Mitrahenny. 

There are few remains above ground of the splendor of ancient Memphis. The 
city has utterly disappeared. If any traces of it yet exist, they are buried beneath the 
vast mounds of crumbling bricks and broken pottery which meet the eye in every 
direction. Near the village of Mitrahenny is a colossal statue of Rameses the Great. 
It is apparently one of two described by Herodotus and Diodorus as standing in 
front of the Temple of Ptah. They were originally about fifty feet in height. The one 

68 



CAIRO TO ASSOUAN. 

which remains, though mutilated, measures forty-eight »eet. It is finely carved in a 
limestone which takes a high polish, and is evidently a portrait. It lies in a pit, which 
during the inundation is filled with water. As we gaze at this fallen and battered statue 
of the mighty conqueror, who was probably contemporaneous with Moses, it is impos- 
sible not to remember the words of the prophet Isaiah : — " They that see thee shall nar- 
rowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to 
tremble, that did shake kingdoms : that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed 
the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? All the kings of the 
nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house. But thou art cast 
out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, 
thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit." 1 

Riding across the mounds of debris already referred to, we soon reach the vast sub- 







PROSTRATE COLOSSAL STATUE OP RAMESES II. AT MEMPHIS. 

terranean tomb in which, for a period of at least fifteen hundred years, the bodies of the 
sacred bulls were interred. In the year i856, M. Mariette observed the head of a 
sphinx protruding from the sand, and remembered that Strabo described the Serapeum 
of Memphis as approached through an avenue of sphinxes. He at once commenced his 
explorations in search of the temple in which Apis was worshiped when alive, and the 
tomb in which it was buried when dead. With immense exertions, the sand-drift was 
cleared away, and the avenue was laid bare from beneath a superincumbent mass, which 
was in some places seventy feet in depth. The splendor of this imposing approach may 
be inferred from the fact that one hundred and forty-one sphinxes were discovered in 
situ, besides the pedestals of many others. The temple to which they led has disap- 
peared, but the tomb remains. It consists of a huge vault or tunnel, divided into three 

1 Laiah xiv. 16 19. 

69 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



parts, one of which was four hundred yards in length, another two hundred and ten yards. 
Only the latter of these is now accessible. Chambers lead out from it on either side, in 
each of which is a ponderous granite sarcophagus hollowed out in the center. In this 
cavity, which will hold four or five persons with ease, the embalmed body of the sacred 
bull was deposited. A granite slab of great size and weight, placed over the sarcopha- 
gus, closed it like a lid. The Viceroy, anxious to place one of these sarcophagi in his 
museum at Bulak, succeeded in conveying it from the chamber into the subterranean 
passage. But there it remains. The inclined plane which leads to the surface of the 
soil offers an insurmountable obstacle to its further progress. Yet the ancient Egypt- 
ians transported these huge blocks of granite from the quarries near Syene to Memphis, 
a distance of nearly six hundred miles ! 

The pomp and splendor with which the worship of the bull Apis was celebrated at 
Memphis may help us to understand the apostasy of the Israelites in the wilderness, 

when, having made a molten calf, they said, "These 
be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of 
the land of Egypt." 1 They had been so accustomed 
to see divine honors paid, even by the mightiest of 
their task-masters, to this supposed incarnation of the 
Deity, that at Sinai itself they yielded to the influ- 
ence of long habit, and "corrupted themselves, 
turning aside quickly out of the way which the Lord 
commanded them." 

It was not the bull alone which was worshipped 
during life by the Egyptians and embalmed on its 
death. Every nome, almost every city, had its 
tutelar animal, which received similar honors. Dogs, 
cats, jackals, wolves, crocodiles, baboons, held in 
abhorrence in one district, were revered in another. 
Thus the Tentyrites, regarding the crocodile as the 
symbol of Typhon, killed it as a religious duty. 
Elsewhere, temples were built in its honor, in which 
these disgusting reptiles were tended with the most 
sedulous care. In all parts of Egypt are large 
pits, in which the embalmed remains of various 
animals are to be found in prodigious numbers. One 
species of ibis seems to have been worshipped everywhere. The bird itself has disap- 
peared, but its embalmed remains exist by millions. Bayle St. John, who made his 
way into the ibis pits near Memphis, says : "We began to explore a vast succession of 
galleries and apartments, closed up here and there with walls of unburnt brick. I can 
give no idea of the extent of these bird catacombs, except by saying that they appeared 
large enough to contain all the defunct members of the feathered creation since the 
beginning of the world. Some of the chambers were vast caves, and there were hun- 
dreds of them." It was scarcely an exaggeration of the satirist, who, when ridiculing 
the animal worship of the Egyptians, said that it was "more easy in Egypt to find a god 
than a man." 

i Exodus xxxii. 4, 8. 
70 




EAMESES II. 



CAIRO TO ASSOUAN. 

In the sandy plains near the site of Memphis are the Pyramids of Sakkara. They 
stand in a vast necropolis four and a half miles in length, where lie interred the dead 
of the earliest periods of Egyptian history. One of them is built in stages, and is said 
by a doubtful tradition preserved by Manetho to have been erected by a monarch of 
the First Dynasty. If this be true, it is much older than those of Gizeh, and is the 
most ancient monument in the world. The Gizeh Pyramids, from their superior size 




SARCOPHAGUS IN THE SERAPEUM OF MEMPHIS. 



and imposing position, have come to be spokon of as the pyramids, leading many 
persons to suppose that they are the only ones. This, however, is a mistake. There 
are eleven still standing in Sakkara. Throwing out of account various pyramidal 
structures in Upper Egypt, Ethiopia, and elsewhere, the total number may be put 
down at about a hundred. They are not scattered indiscriminately thoughout the 

country, but occupy an area about forty-five miles in length, from Gizeh in the north 

71 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

to the Fayum in the south. Some persons have conjectured that their concentration 
within these limits seems to point to some, peculiar phase of religion or civilization as 
prevailing at the period of their erection, and that they were built, not by a native 
Egyptian race, but by foreign conquerors, who had placed their capital at Memphis, 
and introduced this mode of sepulchre, which lasted only during their period of occu- 



■-. 




THE IBIS. 



- 

pation, and ceased when they were expelled. This view has not found favor with 
Egyptologists, and there can be no doubt that they were pyramid-sepulchres. 

We cannot leave the plain of Memphis without recurring yet once again to the 
most memorable event in all its eventful history. It was probably here that Moses 
and Aron stood before Pharaoh and demanded that he should let the people go. In 




m 
P 

K 



c 

03 
I 

ft 

CO 



CAIRO TO ASSOUAN. 

the city now buried beneath mouldering heaps and desert sand the faithful and fearless 
leader braved the " wrath of the king- : for he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible." 
This was the spot where " Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and 
all the Egyptians ; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where 
there was not one dead." 1 Our thoughts pass away from the palaces smitten with this 
sudden and sore bereavement to the homes of the enslaved race waiting securely for 
the signal to depart, whilst through faith they " kept the passover, and the sprinkling 
of blood, lest He that destroyed the first-born should touch them." 2 Great as was the 
historical importance of this event, seeing that it was the birth of a nation, it gains yet 
deeper significance in the fact that it was a type of the great Antitype : " For even 
Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." 3 

It is of the next one hundred and fifty or two hundred miles of the journey up the 
Nile -that travelers often complain as being tedious and wearisome. The scenery is 
monotonous, and the monumental remains are few and unimportant. And yet I can- 
not say that I felt either tedium or weariness. The great river itself is a constant 




IBIS MUMMY FROM MEMPHIS. 



source of wonder. For fifteen hundred miles below the point at which the Tacazze 
enters it from the mountains of Abyssinia, it flows onward to the sea without receiving 
a single tributary. Not even a tiny rill or brooklet trickles through the desert sand 
throughout this immense distance, and rain is almost unknown. The main occupation 
of the peasantry on its banks is to pump water from its ample stream. Sakiyehs and 
shadufs are busy all day and all night long levying contributions upon it for the irrigation 
of the land. Absorbed throughout its course by the scorching sand, and evaporated 
by an unclouded sun, its volume remains apparently undiminished. , Fed by the lakes, 
aud annually swollen by the tropical rains of Central Africa, it is an object of ceaseless 
interest. 

Then the atmospheric phenomena are of great variety and beauty. There is, indeed, 
no weather on the Nile, in our English sense of the term. By force of habit we com- 
merce the voyage by saying, " Fine morning, Fine evening; " but gradually we awake 
to the consciousness that every day is fine. The subtle criticisms, the striking and 

1 Exoius xii 30. 2 Hebrews xi. 28. 3 I Corinthians v. 7. 

75 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



original remarks on the weather, which make up so large a part of the small talk of 
conversation at home, are left to be absurdly out of place where rain is almost a prodio-y. 
In the early spring the khamsin does, indeed, afford a very unpleasant chancre to 
comment upon. It is a hot, dry wind, laden with fine particles of dust, which pene- 
trate everywhere, fill one's eyes and ears, irritate the skin, and produce a sense o 




MAP OF THE NILE, PKOM ALEXANDRIA TO THE SECOND CATARACT. 

extreme discomfort. Everything is seen through a lurid haze. The sands of the desert 
are whirled by it into rotating columns, which march to and fro till they suddenly break 
up and disappear. On the river this is merely a cause of annoyance, but in the 
desert it becomes a serious danger. Caravans are said to have perished and been bur- 
ied beneath the drifting sands. Apart from this most undesirable "change in the 

weather," the days resemble one another. But the parts of each day have to the ob- 

76 



CAIRO TO ASSOUAN. 

servant eye an ever-varying charm. The mornings are delightful, clear and cool and 
bright, with no mist to blur the outlines or veil the sun. Toward mid-day, all color 
seems to be discharged from the landscape, which is wrapped in a white, blinding glare. 
Yet even now it is pleasant to lie under an awning on deck, and with a feeling of de- 
licious indolence listen to the lapping of the water against the sides of the boat, and 
watch the banks glide past us as in a dream. With the drawing on of evening a glory 
of color comes out in the light of the setting sun. Purple shadows are cast by the 
mountains. The reds and greys of sandstone, granite, and limestone cliffs blend exquis- 
itely with the tawny yellow of the desert, the rich green of the banks and the blue of the 
river, giving combinations and contrasts of color in which the artist revels. The cold 
grey twilight follows immediately upon sunset ; but in a few minutes there is a marvel- 
ous change. The earth and sky are suffused with a delicate pink tinge, known as the 
after-glow. This is the most fairy-like and magical effect of color I have ever seen. 




NILE CLIFFS. 

Swiss travelers are familiar with something like it in the rosy flush of the snowy alps be- 
fore sunrise and after sunset. The peculiarity in Egypt is that light and color return 
after an interval of ashy grey, like the coming back of life to a corpse, and that it is not 
confined to a part of the landscape, but floods the whole. I have seen no explanation 
of this beautiful phenomenon, and can only conjecture that it is connected with the re- 
flection and refraction of the light of the setting sun from the sands of the Libyan Desert. 
Then comes on the night — and such a night ! The stars shine with a lustrous brilliancy 
so intense that I have seen a distinct shadow cast by the planet Jupiter, whilst his satel- 
lites were easily visible through an ordinary opera-glass. 1 Orion was an object of inde- 
scribable splendor. Under which of her aspects the moon was most beautiful I cannot 
say — whether the first slender thread of light, invisible in our denser atmosphere, or in 
her growing brightness, or in her full-orbed radiance. Addison's familiar lines gained a 
new meaning when read under this hemisphere of glory : 

1 On one occasion we believed that we could see the principal satellite with the naked eye. Is this possible ? 

79 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

Soon as the evening shades prevail, 
The moon takes up the wondrous tale, 
And nightly, to the listening earth, 
Repeats the story of her birth ; 
Whilst all the stars that round her burn, 
An! all the planets in their turn, 
Confirm the tidings as they roll, 
And spread the truth from pole to pole. 

The river flows on through a narrow strip of vegetation varying from a few feet to a 
few miles in width, but always bounded by the desert. Sometimes the mountains re- 
treat to a considerable distance from the river, sometimes they come down to its very 
brink, and form a series of bold cliffs, often surmounted by a Coptic convent. The vil- 
lages are commonly picturesque, as seen from a distance, standing as they do under a 
grove of palms, and often placed on the top of a mound which hides the ruins of an an- 
cient city. But on a nearer approach they are dirty and dilapidated beyond description. 




AN EGYPTIAN VILLAGE. 

Still these wretched squalid hamlets have a charm for the European traveler. The min- 
aret of the mosque, though often constructed only of mud, is brilliant with white-wash, 
and it rises gracefully amongst the palm-trees. At sunset, after nightfall, at day-break, 
at noon, and toward evening, the Muezzin takes his stand in the gallery, and in aloud, 
sonorous voice calls the faithful to prayer — " God is most great. I testify that there is 
no Deity but God. I testify that Mohammed is God's apostle. Come to prayer. 
Come to security. God is most great;" adding, during the night, and in the early 
morning, " Prayer is better than sleep." Attached to the mosque is commonly a school, 
the noise of which is a sufficient guide to the spot. The children recite their lessons all 
together, and each scholar endeavors to make his voice heard above the din by shout- 
ing his loudest. The instruction given is of the slightest possible kind, consisting of little 
80 



CAIRO TO ASSOUAN. 



else than the recitation of the Koran and the simplest rules of arithmetic. The master 
is often a blind man, who, being able to repeat the Koran by rote, can teach it to the 
children. His payment is little more than nominal, but is apparently quite equal to his 
merits. Mr. Lane gives some curious illustrations of the nature of the instruction given, 
and tells the following droll story : " I was lately told of a man who could neither read 
nor write succeeding to the office of a schoolmaster in my neighborhood. Being able 
to recite the whole of the Koran, he could hear the boys repeat their lessons : to write 
them, he employed the head boy and monitor in the school, pretending that his eyes 
were weak. A few days after he had taken upon himself this office, a poor woman 
brought a letter for him 
to read to her from her 
son, who had gone on 
a pilgrimage. Thefikee 
pretended to read it, 
but said nothing ; and 
the woman, inferring 
from his silence thatthe 
letter contained bad 
news, said to him : — 
-Shall I shriek?" He 
answered " Yes. " 
" Shall I tear my 
clothes?" she asked. 
He replied. "Yes. "So 
the poor woman re- 
turned to her house, 
and with her assem- 
bled friends, perormed 
the lamentation and 
other ceremonies usual 
on the occasion of a 
death. Not many days 
after this, her son ar- 
rived, and she asked 
him what he could 
mean by causing a 
letter to be written 
stating that he was 
dead. He explained 
the contents of the let- 
ter, and she v/ent to the schoolmaster and begged him to inform her why he had told 
her to shriek, and to tear her clothes, since the letter was to inform her that her son was 
well, and he was now arrived at home. Not at all abashed, he said, 'God knows 
futurity. How could I know that your son would arrive in safety? It was better that 
you should think him dead than be led to expect to see him, and perhaps be disap- 
pointed." Some persons who were sitting with him praised his wisdom, exclaiming, 

Si 




THE CALL TO PKAYEE. 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



"Truly our new fikee is a man of unusual judgment," and for a little while he found 
that he had raised his reputation by this blunder. 

The profusion of bird-life on the Nile is one of its most striking features. Myriads 
of storks, cranes, geese, wild ducks, pelicans, hawks, pigeons, and herons are seen clus- 
tering on the islands in the river, lining its banks, or flying in dense clouds overhead. 
To protect the growing crops the fellaheen often construct little stands for boys armed 
with slings, who acquire wonderful dexterity in bringing down their feathered game. 
In Ancient Egypt birds were as numerous as now. Geese are represented as forming 
an important part of every banquet, and they are seldom wanting in the offerings to the 
eods. Fowling- was a favorite amusement. Visitors to the British Museum are familiar 
with the tablet which represents the flocks of geese possessed by a large landed proprie- 
tor. In another the sportsman is seen catching water-fowl in a thicket of papyrus and 
lotus-lilies on the river-bank ; a decoy duck stands on the prow of his boat, and a cat is 
trained to act as a retriever. 1 These countless flocks of birds may serve to illustrate the 

dream of Pharaoh's chief baker. " I 
had three white baskets on my head: 
and in the uppermost basket there 
was of all manner of bakemeats for 
Pharaoh ; and the birds did eat them 
out of the basket upon my 
head." 2 

Quadrupeds much are less numer- 
ous. As in all Oriental countries, 
homeless, masterless dogs roam 
round the villages, and act as scav- 
engers. Among the swamps of the 
Delta wild boars are common. 
Jackals and foxes may be met with 
everywhere. In the neighborhood 
of Luxor and Karnak a hysena is 
often seen, with its heavy, clumsy 
form and slouching gait, prowling 
amongst the ruins. The crocodile has 
almost disappeared from Lower Egypt. Notwithstanding its impenetrable coat of mail and 
its terrible jaws, it is a shy, timid creature, and is said to have been driven away by the 
paddle-wheels of the steamboats. Formerly they might occasionly be seen sunning 
themselves on the mud and sandbanks between Keneh and Assouan, but they have not 
been seen between these points now for a number of years past. It is only as we enter 
Nubia that they are found in considerable numbers. 

The flora of Egypt is not very remarkable. Excepting palms, the trees are few and 
unimportant. A few fine sycamores may be seen, generally in the neighborhood of a 
mosque, or shadowing a santoris tomb. Midway between Cairo and the First Cataract 
the Doum palm makes its appearance. It differs greatly from the ordinary date palm. 

1 An English nobleman who visited the Nile fir purposes of sport, published on his return, an account of his prowess. He shot, 
within two months, 9 pelicans ; 1514 geese ; 328 wild d cks ; 47 widgeon ; 5 teal ; 66 pintails ; 47 flamingoes (!) ; 37 curlews ; 
112 herons ; 2 qua Is ; 9 partridges ; 3,283 pigeons ; and 117 miscellaneous. Total 5,576 head. Even persons who are not scrupu- 
lous in the matter must concur in reprobating this wholesale and useless slaughter. 2 Genesis xl. 16, 17. 
82 




EGYPTIAN FOWLER. 

{From the British Museum.) 



CAIRO. 10 ASSOUAN. 






Instead of the single straight stem, it divides into two main branches, which again bi- 
furcate as the tree grows. Its fruit, which is about the size and color of a pomegranate, 
is said to taste like gingerbread. It contains an exceedingly hard stone, which is used 
by the modern, as it was by the ancient, Egyptian carpenters for making sockets, drills, 
and hinges. 

One very remarkable change has passed upon the water-plants of the Nile. The 
lotus and the papyrus were formerly the most common and characteristic of its products, 
inasmuch that they formed the symbols of Upper and Lower Egypt. The papyrus was 

used not only for mak- 

.v ." ing paper, to which it 

-•---.-• - . gave its name, but for 

~Z- -::• \U?x<S >-'•.--. the construction of 
boats, baskets, and in- 
numerable other arti- 
cles; as in the Upper 
Jordan Valley, where 
it still grows abund- 
antly, even cottages 
were built with it. No 
religious service, no 
state ceremonial, no 
domestic festival is 
found without the lotus 
flower. It forms part 
of every offering to the 
gods. The guests at a 
banquet all hold one in 
their hands. It is, per- 
haps, the object of all 
others most constantly 
represented on the 
mo nments. Yet both 
the lotus and the papy- 
rus have disappeared 
from Egypt. No trace 
of either can be found. 1 
Unaccountable as is 
the disappearance of 
these plants, it was yet foretold by the prophet Isaiah, as a part of the Divine judg- 
ment upon Egypt :"The brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up : the reeds 
and flags shall wither. The paper reeds by the brooks, . . . and everything sown 
by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no more." 2 The phrase " brooks 
of defence" in this passage has greatly perplexed commentators. Brooks, in the proper 
sense of the term, there are none in Egypt. Of course the reference is to the canals 

1 It is indeed said that, in some remote and unvisited portions of the Delta, an occasional papyrus reed may be discovered. The 
fact is doubted, and the statement in the text is substantially true. 
a Isaiah xix 6, 7. 

S5 




WATCHING FIELDS IN EGYPT. 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



with which the country is intersected. But why brooks of "defence? " It has been 
commonly supposed that they were constructed simply for irrigation. But it affords 

a striking illustration of the minute accuracy of Scripture 
phraseology to find that they served the further purpose 
of guarding the land against the raids of the Bedouin 
horsemen, who then, as now, infested the desert, and 
whose depredations were checked by these canals. 

There is little to interest or detain us in the modern 
towns on the Nile bank. Occasionally, as at Manfalut, 
the governor's palace offers some characteristic bits of 
Arabic architecture. These, however, are rare. Even 
in the larger towns, Keneh, for instance, or Siut, there 
is little to be seen save wretched, dilapidated hovels, 
lanes almost impassable for their filth and narrowness, 
with, here and there, a huge sugar factory or cotton 
mill worked by forced labor for the benefit of the 
Viceroy. The situation of Siut (Assiut, as it is now 
usually spelt) is very beautiful. A ride of about two 
miles over a raised causeway, which leads amongst 
fields of great fertility, brings us to a picturesque gate- 
way not unlike that at Manfalut. In front of it is a 
large courtyard, overshadowed by fine trees, in which 
are seated numbers of fellaheen or townspeople waiting 
to present petitions to the governor, or to plead their 
cause before him. In one corner a group of conscripts 
are squatting, who have been dragged from their homes 
to serve in the army, the navy, or the factories of the 
Khedive, as the officials may decide. Entering the city 
gate, we find ourselves in the capital of Upper Egypt. 
The bazaars, though dark and gloomy, are crowded with 
buyers and sellers. A military officer, peacefully mounted 
on a donkey, is transacting business at the door of a 
money-changer's shop. A group of Bedouin are bargain- 
ing for swords, daggers, and long Arab guns at an 
armorer's forge. Veiled women are haggling over the 
price of a piece of blue cloth or a measure of flour. 
Passing out from this busy scene by the gate on the 
opposite side of the city to that at which we entered, we 
find ourselves almost immediately in the silence and 
solitude of the great Libyan Desert. Fragments of 
mummies, mummy-cases, and cere-cloth lie about un- 
heeded on the sand. The steep, rocky hill- side is honey- 
combed with tombs, in which are found remains of 
embalmed wolves. It was from the worship of these 
animals that the town took its ancient name of 
The view from the summit of this range of hills is very striking, 




THE PAPYRUS PLANT. 



Lycopolis 

86 



CAIRO TO ASSOUAN. 

especially as I saw it, at sunset. Except where the Valley of the Nile broke 
the monotony, the eye ranged over a boundless expanse of desert. To the very verge 
of the horizon stretched undulations of marl and sand, like the long swell of ocean in a 
calm. On the edge of the cultivated soil a few black tents of the Bedouin were 
pitched. Two or three Arabs, their naked bodies almost black with exposure, were 
stalking solemnly across the silent waste at our feet, over which long shadows were 
cast in the slanting beams of the setting sun. They were laden with the skins of wild 
beasts, which they were bringing into Siut to sell. No other living beings were visi- 
ble, and they harmonized well with the sentiment of the scene. I felt at the time 
that the grandest mountain scenery of Switzerland was less impressive than this sublime 
monotony of sky and desert. 

It is but seldom that ordinary travelers can have any direct communication with the 
people of the country. The language in most cases forms an insuperable barrier. 




EGYPTIAN ENTERTAINMENT; EACH GUEST WITH A LOTUS FLOWER. 

{From the British A/us uni ) 



The fellah can speak nothing but Arabic, of which the traveler is commonly quite 
ignorant. If the dragoman is employed as interpreter, he is pretty sure to reproduce 
the comical scene described by Kinglake. 1 The donkey-boys and local guides often 
know a little English, of which they make very droll use. I was greatly amused and 
puzzled by the application of the word lunch. " See, Osiris hab lunch," said my guide 
one day; pointing to an altar piled with offering before the god, sculptured on a temple 
wall. On another occasion, riding through some fields oi door ah and vetch, I was told 
that the former was " Arabs' lunch ;" the latter, "camels' lunch." The explanation I 
found to be, that as Europeans breakfast and dine on board their boat, whilst lunch is 
often eaten on shore, it is the only meal of which the natives see or hear anything; 
hence it has come to be used for food in general. 

Whenever travelers can speak or read to the people in their own language, they are 

1 Eothen, vol. i. p. 12. 

?7 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



listened to with eager interest. Readers of the Sunday at Home are familiar with Miss 
Whately's interesting narratives of conversations with them. Having described the 
songs and rude music of the boat's crew, she says: — 

" At last, after several songs and dances, the whole party became tired, and began to 
light their pipes. It seemed a sad thing that these poor fellows should have nothing 
better than such childish diversions ere they went to rest. After a little consultation, it 
was agreed to desire our Moslem servant to ask if they would like the lady to read 
them a story. "What! in Arabic? Could the Sitt {lady) read Arabic ?" they asked, 
incredulously, not knowing that the lady in question was from Syria, and Arabic her 
native tongue. They all said it was good, and they would like to listen. 

So the Arabic Bible was brought out, and, muffled in our cloaks, we sat on the deck 

beside our friend, who was seated on a box; one 
of us held a fanous, or native lamp, which 
threw its bright light on the sacred page, while 
all around was darkness, except where the 
moon here and there shone on the swarthy 
faces of the Nubian boatmen, who formed a 
circle about us, crouching in various postures, 
and wrapped in their striped blue and crimson 
mantles. The servants stood leaning against 
the masts, listening with deep attention ; not 
a sound interrupted the reader's voice but the 
low ripple of the current, as the water plashed 
against the sides of the boat. It was a scene 
one would never forget — that first opening of 
God's book in the presence of these ignorant, 
benighted followers of the False Prophet. Our 
friend read of the sheep lost in the wilderness, 
and the piece of silver lost in the house — those 
simple illustrations of God's wondrous dealings 
with man, which are understood and felt in 
every age and every land. Then she read the 
history of the prodigal son, and the interest of 
the hearers increased, and was shown by their fre- 
quent exclamations of " Good ! Praise God ! " — 
"That is wonderful! Ha!" with an expressive 
tone impossible to write, though easy to conceive. The look of intelligence which the 
silvery rays of the moon revealed on more than one dark upturned face and bright black 
eyes spoke no less plainly. 

As she went on, pausing occasionally to explain a word or show the application, it 
was deeply interesting to watch the effect on her listeners ; and when she closed the 
book, fearing to tire them, there was a universal cry of " Lissa! lissa! " (Not yet! not 
yet!) She read then the Ten Commandments, pointing out the necessity for atonement, 
as shown by man's frequent breaking of God's laws. 

One of the men made a remark relative to the inferiority of woman, whom he affirmed, 
according to Moslem doctrine, to be not only weaker, but more sinful creatures than man. 




LOTUS PLOWER AND LEAF. 

{.Xyjjiphcea. Lot its.) 



CAIRO TO ASSOUAN. 

He did not intend anything personal by this, for the Sitt was evidently looked on as one 
quite beyond the common race of women ; and we heard them observe to each other, 




with most emphatic gestures, that she 
was "very good!" and "knew every- 
thing!" Without manifesting surprise 
or annoyance, she explained to him 
the love of God for all His creatures, 
and the equal necessity for His pardon 
for all. 

"If the water in a vessel is pure," 
she said, "it signifies but little what 
the vessel is in itself, whether of clay 
or of silver ; and the Spirit of God, 
dwelling in our hearts, can alone 
make us vessels fit for the Master's use : whatever we are by nature. He will 

89 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

give us His Holy Spirit, and change our sinful hearts, if we ask as He has told us." 
The boatmen's songs referred to by Miss Whately are amongst the most familiar 
memories of a Nile trip. The crew, whether rowing or hauling on a rope, or squatting 
in a circle on the deck with nothing to do, will continue hour after hour intoning a mo- 
notonous and interminable chant, the words of which are frequently quite unmeaning. 
The principal performer improvises a single line, to which his companions add a chorus, 
and, when possible, mark the time by a rhythmical clapping of hands, and the measured 
beat of a tarabookah. The following is a fair specimen : 



I wish I was at Osioot, 

O Allah ! O my prophet ! 
Then I'd buy a new felt cap, 



O Allah ! O my prophet ! 
The wind is blowing very strong, 
O Allah ! O my prophet ! etc., etc. 



Mr. Macgregor, in his amusing and interesting little book, Eastern Music, has given 
some of these chants, which he caught by ear and noted down. Here is one : 



i 



Con spirito. 



-i h- 



- c. f r 



£ 



:£=£: 



^Fr*=£ 



IE 



S 



tczfc 



£=*= 



± 



A - dy joob 



ta 



sa - li - a - ra ka - la - fo, 



A - dy joob - ta sa - ]i - a 




=P=*t 



'^=W- 



S 



raj 



±z±-£=F: 



i- 



~J?=*Z 



;t*=*=^ 



r^ 



ka - la - fo, Mi - ny och - tin an - i - o - kit 



ka - dy buk- ke- ty a - ni poy - no. 



He gives another, a great favorite on the Nile. We are told that it was played 
"With the Nile drum obligato, and a clapping of hands at every bar." The Egyptian 
drum is called tarabookah, and that used by the Nile boatmen is generally made of clay 
covered with fishes' skin. It is placed under the left arm, generally suspended by a 
string that passes over the left shoulder, and is beaten with both hands. It yields differ- 
ent sounds when struck near the edge and in the middle. The mode of accompanying 
a song by clapping the hands is very ancient, and may be seen depicted in several en- 
gravings in Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians. We quote the 
first eight bars because the melody is remarkable for the introduction of the minor 
seventh (the F natural) in the sixth bar, which gives it a peculiar effect, and is an evi- 
dence of its extreme antiquity. 



LOVE SONG OF THE NILE BOATMEN. 



Allegro. 



£ 



m 



Am 



val 



$ 



lo 



Hub - by 



mo 

— S- 



val 



m 



at 



etc. 



-£- 



*c 



■>- 



Fren me 



ba 



Hub - bv 



ko 



lat 



From the natural scenery and modern life of Egypt, we return to the monumental re- 
mains of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies. 

At various points along the banks of the river we may observe lines of chambers cut 
into the face of the cliffs. Originally tombs, they were, after the introduction of Christ- 



OD 



CAIRO TO ASSOUAN. 



ianity, used as cells by hermits and anchorites. The most interesting of them are at 
Beni Hassan, about one hundred and sixty miles above Cairo. They form a terrace, 
approached by the remains of an ancient causeway, which rises from the plain and runs 
along- the front of the grottoes. The rock has been hewn out into architraves and col- 
umns, with doorways leading into the "tombs. They thus have the appearance of build- 
ings rather than caverns. The columns are remarkable for their non-Egyptian character. 
If found elsewhere, they would be at once classed as Doric, yet they belong to the 
earliest period of the Egyptian monarchy, and are probably but little later than the era 
of the Pyramids. No Greek influence can therefore be suspected. The walls of the 
chambers are covered with frescoes representing the every-day life of the time. Men 
and women are wrestling, fishing and ploughing, reaping, trapping birds, giving dinner- 
parties, being flogged, cutting 
their toe-nails, treading the 
winepress, dancing, playing 
the harp, weaving linen, play- 
ing at ball, being shaved by 
the barber, playing at 
draughts. Verily, there is 
nothing new under the sun • 
Life in Egypt four thousand 
years ago was almost identi- 
cal with that of England in 
the present day. One of my 
companions was a Cumber- 
land squire, and a famous 
wrestler. His attention was 
riveted by a series of wall- 
paintings, representing ath- 
letic sports, chiefly wrestling 
matches. I said to him, "Are 
those pictures like the truth ?" 
He replied enthusiastically, 
"There isn't a grip or a throw 
that I haven't used ; and I 
defy the best wrestler in the 
north of England to do it 
better." 

In the tomb of Chnum- 
hetep the arrival of a party of Canaanitish shepherds in Egypt it depicted. 
They are being introduced to the monarch of the district by a scribe who 
holds a tablet, giving their number as thirty-seven, and calling them Amu; by which 
name the Aramaic races were known to the Egyptians. A hieroglyphic inscription 
styles the leader of the party Hek-absh. He is leading a Syrian goat as a present to 
the monarch, and in the panniers of the asses which follow are other presents, among 
them jars of stibium, at that time largely imported into Egypt from Palestine. 1 On its 

> In the inscription it is said that they came f.om Bat Mestem, which probably mean, "the stibium mine." A place of this 
name is mentioned in the Apocrypha as existing in the Plain of Jezreel. q. 




governor's PALACE AT MANFALTJT. 



THE LAND OF THE FHARAOHS. 



first discovery this fresco was supposed to represent the coming down into Egypt of 
Jacob and his family. This opinion, now generally abandoned, was, however, strongly 
advocated at one of the early meetings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology. It was 
shown that Jacob, his sons, their wives and children, give the exact number required, 
thirty-seven ; the Biblical number of seventy-two being made up by concubines and 
their descendants ; and it was maintained that Hek-absh is simply a transliteration into 
hieroglyphics of the Hebrew name, Jacob. A yet more startling view was propounded 
at the same meeting. An eminent Egyptologist held it to be a record of the visit of 
Abraham. The date was asserted to be coincident with that of the Biblical narrative, 
and the name to be a translation of Abraham, meaning, "the father of a multitude." 
^^smmmMMamffl^^^^^SfflSfflSSL These identifications are doubtful ; but the 
-JllB^ ^^^^^^^P IS fr esco ' s interesting, as a contemporary 

|1||||| • ;.• ~ HI illustration of patriarchal history. 

: ' - . • S mm It has been mentioned that the rock- 

PHB tombs of Egypt were used after the com- 
MHi mencement of the Christian era as the abode 
IBfl °^ rnon ^ s - Of this there are many curious 
r &'~E$4$ traces at Beni Hassan. Among- the ancient 
WM frescoes, we find Christian symbols, placed 
''- "' .* *\ there by the anchorites, and closely re- 

sembling those in the Roman catacombs. 
In at least two cases we have the cross 
upon which doves are resting, symboliz- 
JHp' Wffl h m S tne atoning sacrifice of Christ, with 

, the operations of the spirit needful to give 

^f-r-W^^^mSS^ma it effect upon the hearts of men. One of 
I'^^^^m^i^S these has a leaf of trefoil, typical of the 
\{EW^&mMM^ Trinity, and the Alpha and the Omega 

" f iBlliilKSr 1 conjoined, so as to form a single letter. 

The familiar monogram of Christ into 
which the cross is worked is of frequent 
occurence. Here, too, we find the mystic 
Tate, or crttx ansata of early Egyptian my- 
portico of the tomb op the nomabk aneni at thology, adopted as a Christian symbol. 

BENI HASSAN. ~ . u , J r 1 • • J 

It is, at least, a wondertul coincidence — 
that the cross was the symbol of life among the Egyptians. The gods are constantly 
represented as holding it in the right hand as shown in the engravings on the opposite 
page. We cannot wonder that the early Christians should have availed themselves 
of this significant fact to express their faith in Him who by the cross "abolished death, 
and hath brought life and immortality to light." 

We have to ascend the Nile nearly three hundred and fifty miles above Cairo, one 
hundred and sixty above Beni Hassan, before we reach any of the great temples of 
Ancient Egypt. Below this point they have all been destroyed, and only their foun- 
dations can be traced. But from Girgeh up to Abu-Simbel the number and magnificence 
of their remains give an impressive sense of the splendor of the kingdom of the 

Pharaohs. The first we reach is that of Abydos, specially dedicated to Osiris, and 

92 




CAIRO 10 ASSOUAN. 

which contended with Philse for the honor of being his place of burial. A donkey- 
ride of ten or twelve miles from Girgeh across a plain of extraordinary fertility, brings us 
to the edo-e of the desert. Here are the ruins of two temples, and the mounds which 
cover the vast cemetery arourd the tomb of the deified monarch. A superstitious 
feelino-, like that which has prevailed in many lands and through successive ages, led 
the ancient Egyptians to seek sepulture in or near the sacred spot. The smaller of 
the two temples was of extraordinary richness and beauty. It was built of polished 
o-ranite, lined with Oriental alabaster, still glowing with the colors which adorned it 
nearly four thousand years ago. 1 




VALLEY OP THE NILE AT BENI HASSAN. 



The larger temple, erected by Seti the father of Rameses n. , is partly buried in the 
sand, which, whilst it conceals, has also preserved from injury so many remains of 
ancient magnificence. The colossal walls and columns which have been laid bare are 
decorated with sculptures and paintings. They record or depict the exploits of the king. 
We see him treading down his enemies at the head of his victorious armies, or worship- 
ing the gods, or doing homage to his ancestors. In other parts of the building he is 
represented as eagerly engaged in the excitement of the chase, all the incidents of 
which are given ; amongst others, a wild bull has been lassoed, whose struggles to get 
free are represented with wonderful spirit. 

It was from this temple that the famous tablet of Abydos was brought, which forms one of the most valuable treasures of the 



British Museum. 



95 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



Between Girgeh and Denderah, our next halting-place, we pass the shrine of Sheikh 
Selim, one of the Moslem saints who in every age have thriven upon the superstitious 
credulity of the Egyptians. He is believed neither to eat, drink, nor sleep, but to 
spend his whole time in prayer and meditation. As we approached the spot, our 







m HI € 





wKm. 



CHKISTIAN SYMBOLS AT BENI HASSAN. 




crew began to collect money amongst themselves. Having got together a goodly heap 
of piastres, they tied them up in a handkerchief, and brought the boat as near the 
shore as they could with safety. A gang of ruffianly-looking Arabs, the attendants 
of the saint, now made their appearance and with shouts and gesticulations demanded 
backsheesh in the name of their master. The parcel of coin being thrown to them, a 

violent scuffle took place for its possession, 
which continued till they had reached the 
hut of the saint. In reply to my express- 
ion of surprise at the large amount of 
money collected, I was told that on their 
last voyage the crew had neglected to 
make the usual contribution, and, as a 
consequence, every window on board had 
been broken by Sheikh Selim's curse, and 
the boat had run aground on a mud-bank 
in the river, where she lay for thirty-six 
hours before she could be got off. Our 
dragoman, an unbelieving Maltese, gave 
me a droll account of the piles of provis- 
ions brought by the peasantry to this fast- 
ing saint, addingf, with a roguish twinkle of 
the eye, "And yet I firmly believe that he never eats anything — except geese and 
turkeys." 

The great temple of Denderah is about sixty miles above Abydos. It was dedicated 
to Athor,the Egyptian Venus, and belongs to the later and degraded period of architect- 
ure when the Pharaohs had been superseded by the Ptolemies and the Caesars. A 

curious interest attaches to its date. In the early part of the present century, one of 
9 6 




SEBAK AND CHNI7MIS. 



CAIRO TO ASSOUAN. 

the zodiacs which ornament the roof, being examined by the French savans, was sup- 
posed to indicate an antiquity so great as to be incompatible with the Biblical narrative 
of the Creation and the Flood. Learned and elaborate arguments were constructed to 
prove that the Nile Valley must have been peopled by a highly-civilized race at a period 
long anterior to the existence of man upon the earth, as recorded in the book of Genesis. 
But in their eager haste to disprove the authority of the Mosaic writings, the Egyptolo- 
gists strangely overlooked the fact that the walls of the temple afford conclusive proof 



REMAINS OF THE TEMPLE AT ABYDOS. 
(From Photograph, by E, Frith.) 

that, so far from going back to a mythical antiquity, it is scarcely older than the 
Christian era, having been commenced by Cleopatra and not completed till the reign of 
Nero. 

The vast size, almost perfect preservation, and the sumptuous adornments ot the 
temple make it very impressive. But it wants the severe and simple grandeur of the 
older edifices. It is overloaded with ornament, not in the best taste, and is a formal 
and florid imitation of the edifices of an earlier age. Sculptured upon the walls are 

97 



THE LAND OE THE PHARAOHS. 

portraits of Cleopatra, of colossal size. They are far from supporting her reputation 
for beauty. The face is expressive of sensuality and voluptuousness, and bears no 
trace of the ambition and intelligence with which she had been credited. Their resem • 
blance to the original has sometimes been called in question, but, as Dean Stanley 
remarks, " the fat full features are well brought out, and being like those at Hermonthis, 
give the impression that it must be a likeness." 

We are now approaching Thebes, the capital of Ancient Egypt, and the culminating 




THE GBEAT HALL IN THE TEMPLE OE ABYDOS. 



point of its splendor and magnificence. Throughout a period nearly twice the length 

of our own history the wealth and power of successive Pharaohs had been devoted to 

its aggrandisement, and the labor of subdued and enslaved nations been employed in 

the erection of its temples and palaces. For fifteen hundred years each succeeding 

generation added something to its glories. Its Titanic edifices record the history and 

illustrate the greatness of the people thoughout the whole period of their national 

existence. 

The great plain of Thebes afforded a noble site for such a city. The Arabian and 

Libyan Mountains which enclose the Nile Valley here assume grander forms than in 
08 




« 

ft 

o 

H 

B 

H 
H 
H 

O 

O 
O 

H 

M 
O 



CAIRO TO ASSOUAN. 



the northern parts of the chain, and they recede farther from the river, so as to inclose 
an amphitheatre of considerable extent, through the centre of which the river runs 
with a broad expanse of verdure on either bank. Within the area inclosed by these 
mighty bulwarks stood edifices, the ruins of which fill the spectator with awe-struck 
wonder. Avenues of statues and sphinxes, miles in length, ran along the plain, leading 
to propylons a hundred feet in height, through which kings and warriors, priests and 
courtiers, passed into the temples and palaces which lay beyond. Above all towered 
the colossal images of the Pharaohs, looking down upon the city, and far over the plain 
at their feet, like gigantic warders. As I wandered day after day with ever-growing 
amazement amongst these relics of ancient magnificence, I felt that if all the ruins in 
Europe — Classical, Celtic, and Mediaeval — were brought together into one centre, they 
would fall far short both in extent and grandeur of those of this single Egyptian 
city. 

Its original name was T-Ape, the head or capital, of which Thebes is a corruption. 
By the Hebrews it was known as No-Amon, the abode of Amon, the god to whom it 
was specially dedicated. References to its greatness and prophe- 
cies of its downfall are frequent in Scripture. Among the most 
striking of these is that of Nahum, when, taunting Nineveh, 
he says : " Art thou better than No-Amon that was situated by 
the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was 
the sea-like stream, and whose wall was the sea-like stream? 
Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite ; Put 
and Lubim were her helpers. Yet she was carried away, she 
went into captivity." 1 The present desolation of the magnificent 
city affords an emphatic commentary on the denunciations of 
prophecy. 

To depict and describe in detail the stupendous ruins which 
cover the great Theban plain would require many volumes like 
the present. We can only glance at some of the most important 

On the western bank, in what was called the Libyan suburb 
stands the great temple-palace known as the Ramesseum, or 
Memnonium. It was built by Rameses n., whose favorite title, 
Mi- Amon, the beloved of Amon, was probably corrupted by the Greeks into Memnon, 
and in this form has passed into the languages of modern Europe. We can yet 
read upon its walls the achievements of the great king. We see him leading on his 
armies, slaughtering his enemies, receiving the spoils of captured cities, or peacefully 
administering his mighty empire, then co-extensive with the known world. Over all 
towered the colossal image of Pharaoh himself. No description, no measurement, gives 
any adequate idea of the bulk of this enormous statue, now prostrate in the dust. It 
was formed out of a block of syenite granite, estimated to weigh when entire nearly 
nine hundred tons. It measures twenty-two feet from shoulder to shoulder ; a toe is 
three feet long, the foot five feet across. It is now generally agreed that this was the 
king who knew not Joseph and who so cruelly oppessed the Israelites. His mummy 
was discovered at Deir-el-Bahari, in 1881. 2 




BEICK WITH THE CAE- 
TOUCHE OF EAMESES IL 



' Nahum iii. 8 — 10. The prophet seems here to be speaking of the future and foreseen desolation of Thebes, as though it were 
already accomplished : but the date of Nahum's prophecy is very uncertain. 2 See Section IV. of this volume. 



101 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



Near the Ramesseum are the temples of Medinet-Abu, that is, as it should be under- 
stood, the city of Thebes. The largest of this group of buildings was erected by 
Rameses in., the last of the great warrior-kings of Egypt, about 1200 B.C. As in the 
case of his predecessors, we can trace his history on the walls of the temple. The glow- 
ing words of Lord Lindsay do not exaggerate the impressiveness of this marvellous 
edifice : " I will only say that all I had anticipated of Egyptian magnificence fell short 
of the reality, and that it was here, surveying those Osiride pillars, that splendid corridor, 
with its massy circular columns ; those walls lined within and without, with historical 
sculpture of the deepest interest, the monarch's wars with the Eastern nations bordering 
on the Caspian and Bactriana — study for months, years rather! — it was here, I say, here, 

where almost every 
peculiarity of 
Egyptian architec- 
ture is assembled 
in perfection, that 
I first learnt to ap- 
preciate the spirit 
of that extraordin- 
ary people, and to 
feel that poetless 
as they were, they 
had a national 
genius, and had 
stamped it on the 
works of their 
hands, lasting as 
the Iliad. Willing 
slaves to the vilest 
superstition, bonds- 
men to form and 
circumstance, 
adepts in every me- 
chanical art that 
can add luxury or 
comfort to human 
existence, yet tri- 
umphing abroad 

over the very Scythians, captives from every quarter of the globe figuring in those long 
oblational processions to the sacred shrines in which they delighted, after returning to 
their native Nile — that grave, austere, gloomy architecture, sublime in outline and 
heavily elaborate in ornament, what a transcript was it of their own character! And 
never were pages more graphic. The gathering, the march, the melee — the Pharaohs 
prowess, standing erect, as he always does in his car — no charioteer — the reins attached 
to his waist — the arrow drawn to his ear — his horses all fire, springing into the air like 
Pegasuses — and then the agony of the dying, transfixed by his darts, the relaxed limbs 
of the slain ; and, lastly, the triumphant return, the welcome home, and the offerings of 




THE RAMESSEUM, THEBES. 



CARIO TO ASSOUAN. 



thankso-ivintf to Amon, the fire, the discrimination with which these ideas are bodied 
forth must be seen to judge of it." 

Adjoining the temple are the ruins of a pyramidal tower, the internal arrangements 
and sculptures of which show that it was the palace of Rameses. It is remarkable as 
being almost the only instance yet discovered of an ancient dwelling. The Egyptians 
built their temples and tombs for eternity. Their own houses were constructed of 
perishable materials, to last only for the brief period of their continuance on earth. 
The rooms are small, but richly decorated. We see the king surrounded by the ladies 
of his court, who fan him, present him with flowers, and pay him court. In one place 
he is seen playing 
a game of chess, or 
draughts, with his 
attendants. The 
draught-men and 
the chequered 
board, though 
sculptured on the 
walls more than 
three thousand 
years ago, are sim- 
ilar to those used 
at the present day. 

Seated in solemn 
and solitary majesty 
in the plain be- 
tween the temples 
Medinet-Abu and 
the river, are the 
two " Colossi. " 
They alone remain 
of an avenue of 
eighteen similar 
statues which led 
up to the temple of 
Amenophis in. 
Though much 

broken and shattered, they present an aspect of wonderful grandeur. The following are 
the measurements as given by Murray : eighteen feet three inches across the shoulders ; 
sixteen feet six inches from the top of the shoulder to the elbow ; ten feet six inches 
from the top of the head to the shoulder ; seventeen feet nine inches from the elbow to 
the finger's end ; nineteen feet eight inches from the knee to the plant of the foot. 
When entire, they must have risen to a height of sixty feet from the surrounding plain. 
,They are thus somewhat smaller than the prostrate statue of Rameses, are of inferior 
workmanship, and carved out of a coarser material. One of them was partially over- 
thrown either by Cambyses, the great Persian conqueror, or by an earthquake ; it has, 

however, been restored, though the traces of the injury are evident. They were seated 

103 




OSIRIDE COLUMNS OF RAMESSEUM, THEBES. 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

upon their thrones when the Israelites were in Egypt, and they seem likely to remain 
there to the end of the world. One of them, known as the Vocal Memnon, was 
believed to emit a musical sound as the rays of the rising sun fell upon it, or in the 
presence of distinguished visitors. Various explanations were offered of this phe- 




~^M J^Et^^" ±S&-£- 



PALACE OF RAMESES III., MEDINET-ABU. 



nomenon, such as the trickling of sand amongst the cracks of the figure, or a slight move- 
ment of its parts caused by a change of temperature. The mystery was dispelled by Sir 
Gardner Wilkinson, who discovered in the lap of the figure a slab of stone, which, on 



I 4 



CAIRO TO ASSOUAN. 



being struck, gives out the exact sound described by Straboand others. 1 For a trifling 
backsheesh, an Arab climbs up the statue, and, unseen by persons in the plain below, 
produces as often as is wished the note "like the breaking of an harp string," v/hich 
was thrice repeated in honor of the Emperor Hadrian on his visit to Thebes. 

Crossing the river to Luxor, which lies on the opposite bank, we find an Arab vil- 
lage, built within and upon the temples of Amenophis in. and Rameses n. The effect 
is grotesque, and detracts sorely from their impressiveness. The silence and the sense 
of loneliness, which 
elsewhere give such 
a weird solemnity 
to the ruins, are 
here dispelled by 
the miserable 
hovels which 
cluster round the 
stately columns, 
and the swarms of 
beggars clamor- 
ously demanding 
backsheesh. There 
is, . however, one 
part of the ruins 
remote from the 
village which is 
not infested by 
these annoyances, 
and here it is possi- 
ble to admire the 
graceful, yet 
massive columns, 
and realize, in 
some measure, 
what Egyptian 
architecture was in 
i t s most perfect 
period of develop- 
ment. 

The temple- 
palaces of Luxor 

and Karnak were united by a magnificent avenue of sphinxes, which led for nearly two 
miles across the plain. The roadway between them was sixty-three feet in width, and 
as the sphinxes were only twelve feet apart, the number of these majestic figures was 
almost incredible. For fifteen hundred feet from Luxor, they were of the usual form, 
with female heads ; thence to Karnak they were crio, or ram-headed sphinxes, as being 
sacred to Amon. A similar avenue led from the main front to a quay and flight of 




PALACE OF EAMESES III., MEDLNET-ABU. 



> But see an article in the Quarterly Review for April, 1875, maintaining the first of these explanations. 



1 05 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

steps on the bank of the river, and eight or ten other approaches, not inferior in gran- 
deur to these two, have been traced. 

As we approach Karnak, the most striking objects are two of the enormous propy- 
lons so characteristic of Egyptian architecture. They are truncated pyramids, pierced 
with a gateway. The sides slope inward from a rectangular base, and are often 
surmounted by a heavy cornice, on which is sculptured the symbol known to the Greeks 
as the Agathod&mon, a winged sun, or scarabaeus, reminding us of the words of Script- 
ure, "He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust." 1 
It was the number of these propylons which gained for Thebes the Homeric epithet of 
" the hundred-gated city." 




COLUMNS OF TEMPLE AT LUXOR. 



We now enter the most stupendous pile of remains — we can hardly call them ruins — 
in the world. Every writer who has attempted to describe them, avows his inability 
to convey any adequate idea of their extent and grandeur. The long, converging 
avenues of sphinxes, the sculptured corridors, the columned aisles, the gates, and 
obelisks, and colossal statues, all silent in their desolation, fill the beholder with awe. 
There is no exaggeration in Champollion's words : " The imagination, which in Europe 
rises far above our porticoes, sinks abashed at the foot of the one hundred and forty 
columns of the hypostyle hall at Karnak." The area of this hall is fifty-seven thousand 
six hundred and twenty-nine feet. The central columns are thirty-four feet in circum- 
ference and sixty-two feet in height, without reckoning the plinth and abacus. They 

1 Psalm xci. 4. 



706 




THE COLOSSI OF THEBES. 



CAIRO TO ASSOUAN. 

are covered with paintings and sculptures, the colors of which are wonderfully fresh 
and vivid. If, as seems probable, the great design of Egyptian architecture was to 
impress man with a feeling of his own littleness, to inspire a sense of overwhelming 
awe in the presence of the deity, and, at the same time, to show that the monarch was 
a being of superhuman greatness, these edifices were well adapted to accomplish their 
purpose. This has been well stated by Mr. Zincke in his suggestive work on Egypt. 
The Egyptian beholder and worshipper was not to be attracted and charmed, but 
overwhelmed. His own nothingness, and the terribleness of the power and will of 




LUXOR. 

God, was what he was to feel. But if the awfulness of the deity was thus inculcated, 
the divine power of the Pharaoh was not less strikingly set forth. He is seen seated 
amongst the gods, nourished from their breast, folded in their arms, admitted to fa- 
miliar intercourse with them. He is represented on the walls of the temples as of colos- 
sal stature, whilst the noblest of his subjects are but pigmies in his presence. With one 
hand he crushes hosts of enemies, with the other he grasps that of his patron deity. 
The Pharaoh was the earthly manifestation and avatar of the unseen and mysterious 

power which oppressed the souls of men with terror. " I am Pharaoh ; " " By the life of 

109 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



Pharaoh ;" " say unto Pharaoh, Whom art thou like in thy greatness ? " l These familiar 
phrases of Scripture gain a new emphasis of meaning as we remember them amongst 
these temple-palaces. It is with a feeling of relief that we turn away from these dread- 
inspiring deities to think of Him who " dwelleth not in temples made with hands ; " 
who calls Himself our Father, and who invites from us not the servile worship of 
terror, but a filial "love which casteth out fear:" whose earthly manifestation and 

incarnation has been made, 
not in the person of a dei- 
fied conqueror, but in one 
who was " a Man of sorrows 
and acquainted with grief;" 
who " is touched with a feel- 
ing of our infirmities ; " who 
" bare our sins in His own 
body on the tree," and who 
is now exalted to the risfht 
hand of the Majesty on 
high, " a Prince and a Sa- 
viour, to give repentance and 
the remission of sins." 

Amongst the temples of 
Karnak a special interest at- 
taches to one comparatively 
late in date, but which is the 
earliest yet discovered which 
directly and certainly touches 
the history of other nations. 
Sheshank — the Shishak of 
Scripture — was one of the 

J. 

last of the Pharaohs who, for 
the space of more than a 
thousand years, had been 
busy building up the glories 
of Karnak. He erected a 
kind of chapel flanking the 
great portico toward the 
south, and, after the manner 
of his race, cut into its walls 
a record of his achievements. 
We see the colossal figure leading in bonds the pigmy monarchs whom he had 
conquered. On a cartouche is written, in hieroglyphics, the name of each. The 
sculptures, discovered and deciphered by Champollion, record that Shishak is dragging 
before the Theban trinity the types of more than thirty nations which he had subdued. 
From the variety of their features, they are evidently intended to be typical of the people 
represented. Amongst them is one with a distinctly Jewish cast of face. Turning 

' Genesis xli. 44 ; xiii. 15. 16 ; Ezekiel xxxi. 2. Quoted by Dean Stanley, in Sinai and Palestine. 
no 




PROPYLON AT KARNAK. 



CAIRO TO ASSOUAN. 



to the Bible, we find that, " In the fifth year of king Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt 
came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the Lord, with 
twelve hundred chariots, and threescore thousand horsemen, and people without 
number, and he took the fenced cities which pertained tj Judah, and came to Jerusalem, 
and he took away the treasures of the house of -he Lord, and the treasures of the 
kino-'s house ; he took all." 1 This monument may thus be a contemporary record of 
the event narrated in Scripture. 

It has been already mentioned that the Egyptians built their houses of perishable 
materials, but that their temples and tombs were constructed on the grandest scale, 
and of the most enduring character. How t/ue this is of the Theban temples we 
have seen. We 
now turn to the 
tombs, which are 
scarcely less won- 
derful in their ex- 
tent arid magnifi- 
cence. They are 
constructed in the 
hager, that is, a 
rock, and refers to 
the rocky precipi- 
ces which rise from 
the fertile banks of 
the river. Crossing 
the western plain, 
here about three 
miles in width, and 
leaving behind us 
the seated Colossi, 
and the temples of 
Kurnah, Medinet- 
Abu, and the Ra- 
messeum, we enter 
a savage gorge. 
The walls of rock 
on either side of the 
ravine, utterly de- 
nuded of soil, glow 
in the pitiless sun- 
shine, like the mouth of a furnace. Overhead rises a pyramidal mass of rock, 
which forms a striking feature in the landscape, and commands from its summit a 
striking view of the Nile Valley and Desert. No tree, or blade of grass, or drop 
of water, or living thing is visible as the travelers pass along in the blinding glare. 
This gorge leads us to the Biban el Moluk, or tombs of the kings. The rocks 
are honeycombed with sepulchres, which run far into the mountain sides. Here 

1 i Kings xiv. 25 ; 2 Chron. xii. 3-9. 




GREAT HALL AT KAENAK. 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



the Theban Pharaohs " lie in glory, every one in his own house." 1 Near them 
are queens, priests, and nobles, interred with a splendor not inferior to that of the 
Pharaohs. Some of these sepulchral halls are of vast extent. One of them, that of 
the Assaseef, is eight hundred and sixty-two feet in length, without reckoning the 
lateral chambers ; the total area of excavation is twenty-three thousand eight hundred 
and nine feet, occupying an acre and a quarter of ground, " an immoderate space for 

the sepulchre of one 



individual, even 
allowing that the 
members of his 
family shared a 
portion of its ex- 
tent." 2 

The sides of 
these tombs are 
covered with fres- 
coes and sculp- 
tures, sometimes 
giving the protrait 
of the inmate and 
illustrating his ca- 
reer. More fre- 
quently, they are 
fancy sketches, or 
what we should call 
genre paintings. 
The life of the 
Egyptian people is 
here portrayed 
with extraordinary 
accuracy and detail. 
"We saw here, as 
in a picture story- 
book, how the man 
had cultivated his 
gardens and fields, 
had garnered h i s 
harvests, had sent 
merchandise on the 
river in boats sail- 
ing- with the wind 

— how he had gone to battle and taken the command of armies — the gathering in of his 
vintage, the games and shoutings of the wine-pressers, his sports in fishing and fowling. 
Then we saw him — a picture of easy joy — in the midst of the family circle. We saw him 
at the feast : guests were at his dwelling ; he welcomed them to the merry banquet ;. 

' Isaiah xiv. 1 8. 2 For details of the recent wonderful discoveries in this region, see Section IV. of this volume. 

112 




HYPOSTYLE HALL, KANARK. 



CAIRO TO ASSOUAN. 




A CAPTIVE JEW OF SHISHAK S 
TIME. 



slaves crowned them with garlands of flowers ; the wine-cup 
passed round. Then there were harpers and musicians and 
players on the double pipes. Girls in long wavy hair and 
light clinging garments were dancing. But to all things there 
comes an end. We saw here, also, the day (how far back in 
the depths of time !) when those pleasant feasts were all over 
— the lilies dead, the music hushed, the last of this man's 
harvest stored, the last trip enjoyed by boat or chariot. The 
fish need no more fear him in the pools, nor the fowl among 
the reeds. Here he was lying under the hands of the em- 
balmers. And next we saw him in mummy form on the 
bier, in the consecrated boat which was to carry him over 
the dark river and land him at the gates of the heavenly 
abode, where the genii of the dead and Osiris were awaiting 
him to try his deeds, and pronounce his sentence for eternal 
good or ill." 1 

Standing among the affecting memorials of lives, the earthly 
course of which was terminated thousands of years ago, we 
ask ourselves what knowledge of hope had they of the life to 
come ? They distinctly recognized the great facts of a judg- 
ment after death, the immortality of the soul, and the resur- 
rection of 



the body. 
The practice of embalming the dead 
was indeed but an expression of 
this belief, which was wrought into 
their whole habit of thought and 
mode of life. We learn this not 
merely from the inscriptions in the 
tombs, temples, and on the sarco- 
phagi, but from rolls of papyrus 
placed with the mummy in the coffin, 
which trace the course of the disem- 
bodied spirit to the regions of re- 
ward or punishment. In one chap- 
ter of these Books of the Dead, as 
they are called, we see the spirit 
hovering over the corpse in the 
form of a hawk, with human head 
and hands, and grasping the symbol 
of life and stability. The body is 
borne across the river, accompanied 
by priests and mourners to the 
grave. The spirit passes away to 
Amenti. Here it encounters innu- 




EBANGOIS CHAMPOLLION. 



1 Leisure Hour, Mav, 1867. 



113 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

merable perils from the monsters which lie in wait to avenge upon it any crimes of 
which it has been guilty during life. The prayers and protestations of innocence 
which are to prove its safeguard are dictated. Then it enters the judgment hall of 
Osiris. Here are seen the forty-two judges of the dead. Some are human, others 
have the heads of the crocodile, hawk, lion, ape, etc. Before them kneels the 
dead man repeating the negative confession from which we extract the following : 
"I have defrauded no man: I have not prevaricated at the seat of justice; I 
have not made slaves of the Egyptians : I have not defiled my conscience for the 
sake of my superior: I have not used violence: I have not famished my house- 
hold ; I have not made to weep : I have not committed forgery ; I have not falsified 




Pffi^§#K 



SCULPTUBED WALL, KARNAK. 



weights or measures . I have not pierced the banks of the Nile, nor separated for my- 
self an arm of the Nile in its increase : I have not been gluttonous : I have not been 
drunken : " etc. In the lower tier is the judgment hall of Osiris. We see on the right 
three figures. The one in the centre, clothed in the usual Egyptian dress, is the dead 
man. He is received by two females, each with an ostrich feather in her headdress, 
symbolizing Law. One introduces him to the other, who holds a sceptre and a crux 
ansata — the symbols of authority and life. In the centre is the balance of judgment. 
The heart is placed on one scale, the symbols of truth and justice in the other. One of 
the ministers of Thoth, the scribe of the gods cynocephalus, in the form of an ape, 
whose name is Hap (sentence, judgment), sits on the stand which supports the balance. 
Horus, the hawk-headed, the beloved son of Osiris and Anubis, watch the scale in 

H4 




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CAIRO TO ASSOUAN. 

which the heart is placed, and at the same time closely observes the index of the balance. 
The opposite scale is trimmed by the dog-headed Anubis, who declares the result ofthe 
scrutiny to the ibis-headed Thoth, the divine wisdom, who stands with his writing-tablet 
and pen in front of Osiris, the supreme judge of this fearful assize, and records the 
sentence in his presence. Osiris himself is seated in a shrine on the extreme left, and 
wears a diadem adorned with two ostrich feathers, and with the disk ofthe sun and the 




SHISHAK AND HIS CAPTIVES ON SCULPTURED WALL AT KARNAK. 



horns of a goat. He holds a whip and a crook-headed sceptre symbolizing justice and 
law. Immediately before the throne, and within the shrine, is a stand, upon which is 
hung the skin of a panther : the meaning of this is unknown. An altar laden with offer- 
ings, and surmounted by the lotus-flower, stands in front of the shrine. It probably 
represents the acts of piety peformed on behalf of the deceased by his surviving rela- 
tives. On the pedestal before the throne a monster crouches, with the paws of a lion 

117 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 




and the head of a crocodile and the 
body of a horse ; his name, " the De- 
vourer of Amenti," as well as his 
appearance, point him out as another 
of the ministers of vengeance excuting 
the judgments of the divinity before 
whom he crouches. 

The sentence pronounced was full 
of joy to the good, and of woe to the 
wicked. They who, by the faithful 
discharge of their duties as children, as 
parents, as masters or servants, as 
kings or subjects, had been enabled to 
pass the ordeal, were admitted to the 
habitations of blessedness, where they 
rested from their labors. Here they 
reap the corn and gather the fruits of 
paradise under the eye and smile of 
the lord of joy, that is, the sun, who 
exhorts them thus : "Take your sick- 
les, reap your grain, carry it into your 

dwellings, and be glad therewith, and present it a pure offering to the god." There 
also they bathe in the pure river of life that flows past their habitations. Over them is 
inscribed : "They have found favor in the eyes of the great god, they inhabit the man- 
sions of glory, where they enjoy the life of heaven ; the bodies which they have 
abandoned shall repose in their tombs while they rejoice in the presence of the supreme 
god." 

The system of eschatology, thus sketched in the briefest possible outline, suggests 
many questions of profound interest, to which, however, no adequate reply can at pres- 
ent be given. Whence was it derived ? Is it a distorted tradition of some primeval 
revelation made to man ; or is it but a part of that universal illumination of the Holy 
Spirit, which "enlightening every man that cometh into the world," never leaves God 
without a witness even in the heart of the heathen, "so that they are without excuse?" 
It is easy for us to discover a symbolism in the forms in which these beliefs were em- 
bodied. For instance, we may see in the monsters which avenged the different vices 

118 




TOMBS OF THE KINGS AT THEBES. 



CAIRO TO ASSOUAN. 



and crimes upon offenders, the types of those vices and crimes themselves, thus suggest- 
ing the truth that those sins brought with them their own punishment. How far did the 
Egyptians understand these deeper and more spiritual teachings ? This doctrine of a 
future state of rewards and punishments was fully developed at the time when Moses 





FRESCOES IN TOMBS Of THE KINGS AT THEBES. 



was "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." It must have been known to him. 
How comes it, then, that truths which hold so prominent a place in the later Scriptures, 
should be almost, or altogether, passed over in his writings? This is one of those un- 
explained silences of Scripture for the explanation of which we must wait in faith and 

patience. We cannot but note yet further the 
insufficiency of the knowledge thus possessed 
to bring peace and pardon to the guilty. The 
ritual of the dead tells us that the innocent 
man shall be "justified" in the judgment hall 
of Osiris. "Where, then, shall the sinner 
and the ungodly appear?" It was reserved 
for Him who "brought life and immortality 
to light," and who "gave Himself a ransom 
for us," to reveal the way of the sinner's ac- 
ceptance with God through faith in Him that 
justifieth the ungodly. 

Before leaving the tombs at Thebes, it is 
necessary to refer to one which is supposed 
to contain a record of the captivity of the Is- 
raelites in Egypt. A gang of slaves are en- 
gaged in brickmaking, under the eye of a 
taskmaster, who is seated, staff in hand, super- 
intending their labors. That they belong to a Semitic race is evident. But that the 
Jews were ever settled so high up the Nile Valley is very doubtful. Pithom and Raamses, 
the treasure cities which they are said to have built, were on the north-eastern 
frontier in the land of Goshen, 1 and their name does not occur amongst those of the nat- 
ions recorded in this tomb. The painting is, however, interesting as illustrating the 

i Exodus i. II. 

ug 




HARPER IN TOMB AT THEBES. 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

condition of a people compelled "to serve with rigor in mortar and in brick, and in all 
manner of service in the field." 1 

Leaving Thebes reluctantly, and feeling that months might be spent in exploring its 
remains, we pursue our course up the Nile, and reach Esneh. Here is a temple, the 
portico of which has been excavated only in the present century. The sand in which 
it was so long buried has preserved its sculptures and paintings in marvellous per- 
fection. The colors are as fresh and bright as when laid on at the commencement of 
the Christian era. It belongs to the later period of Egyptian art, when it had come 
decidedly under Greek influence. The present edifice probably occupies the site of an 
older one, built by Thothmes in. The palm leaf here replaces the lotus in the capitals 




IN THE TOMBS AT THEBES. 



of the columns, which are of great beauty. No two are alike. Their variety and grace 
afford a fine study for the decorative artist. We may observe here the change which 
had passed over the Egyptian feeling towards the gods and Pharaohs, since the time 
when they were regarded with awe and terror. Greek thought and feeling had human- 
ized the deities, and brought them down from their mysterious seclusion into friendly 
intercourse with man. In one panel we see them assisting the monarchs in the sports 
of the field. They are holding the cords of a clapnet in four divisions. The upper 
tier encloses flying birds ; the second, birds perched among the trees ; the third, water- 
fowl; the fourth, fishes. In another section, the gods, with their characteristic head- 

' Exo.lus i. 13, 14. 



CAIRO TO ASSOUAN. 

dresses and symbols of authority, are driving bulls, goats, and flocks of geese. Whilst 
the form of Egyptian worship remained, the sense of reverence and awe, which formed 
its spirit and essence, had departed. 

About thirty miles above Esneh is the most perfectly preserved temple in Egypt — 
that of Edfou. Until excavated by M. Mariette, in i864, only the propylons were visi- 
ble ; the rest was hidden beneath an Arab village which had been built upon its walls 
and sanctuary. It belongs to the period of the Ptolemies, and, like the temple at 
Esneh, exhibits the gods engaged in field-sports. One corridor is mainly devoted to 
harpooning the hippopotamus, and, with the irresistible tendency of the Egyptians to 
caricature, many of the incidents are very droll. In several cases the clumsy harpooner 
has struck his weapon into one of the attendants, instead of the animal at which it was 



Minimi mi i' iiiniiiiriTTr 





i 



al '=■ S, Tan & ~'^ 




THE JUDGMENT HALL OE OSIRIS. 



aimed. Doubtless there was a mythological meaning in the sculptures — the hippopota- 
mus being a symbol of Typhon, the Evil principle. But the realism and the fun of 
the scene are strangely out of keeping with the conventional and reverential tone 
of earlier art. 

A few hours after leaving Edfou we reach Silsilis, which is interesting as being the 
quarry from which the stone was cut for the temples and palaces of Thebes. The 
excavations are of immense extent on both sides of the river, which is here very narrow. 
They have been vividly described by Eliot Warburton, who says : " Hollowed out of 
the rocks are squares as large as that of St. James's, streets as large as Pall Mall, and 
lanes and alleys without number ; in short, you have all the negative features of a town, 
if I may so speak, i.e., if a town be considered as a cameo, these quarries are a vast 
intaglio." The tool-marks of the masons, made three thousand years ago, are distinctly 
visible, and it is easy to see the methods employed to separate the huge blocks of stone, 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

in the absence of gunpowder or other explosive material. Wooden wedges were 
inserted into the rock, and then moistened. As the line of wedges swelled, a mass of 
stone was detached of the size required. Remembering the stir and bustle of which 
these quarries were once the scene, their present solitude and silence are most impres- 
sive. Facing the river are a number of small grottoes or chapels, apparently for the 




use of the quarrymen, and these, with the but- 
tresses of stone carved into the form of columns, 
have a very picturesque appearance, giving the 
impression 



of a vast 
city hewn 
out of the 
livingrock. 
Fifteen 
miles above Silsilis, we reach the temple of Kom 
Ombo. Standing as it does on the summit of a 
hill overlooking the Nile Valley, it forms a very 
striking object from the river. Though small in 
size as compared with the mighty masses of 
Karnak and Luxor, it is one of the most beauti- 
ful edifices in Egypt. The sand-drift from the 
desert has buried the lower part of the columns, 

122 




SOUL VISITING ITS BODY, AND HOLDING THE 
EMBLEMS OF LIFE AND BREATH IN ITS CLAWS. 




PORTICO AND TEMPLE AT ESNEH. 




THE TEMPLE AT EDFOU. 



CAIRO TO ASSOUAN. 



and threatens to submerge the whole. On the riverside the banks are being rapidly 
undermined by the force of the current. One smaller temple lower down the slope has 
already been swept away, and apparently in a few years this too will disappear. 




GBOTTOES OP SILSILIS. 



We now approach the first cataract ot the Nile. The scenery begins to assume a 
more distinctively Nubian character. Soon the ruined towers over Assouan come 
into view, and the second stage of our journey is completed. 



»5 




LANDING-PLACE AT ASSOUAN. 



SECTION III. 



Assouan to Abu-Simbel. 



HPHE approach to Assouan is' very picturesque, and affords a pleasing contrast to 

-*■ the scenery of the Lower and Middle Nile. Instead of flat monotonous banks 

of sand and mud, we have masses of rock, broken up into grotesque and fantastic 

forms. Groves of palm, mimosa, and castor-oil plant come down to the water's edge. 

The limestone and sandstone ranges which hem in the Nile Valley from Cairo to 

Silsilis, give place to granite, porphyry, and basalt. The islands in the stream are no 

longer shifting accretions of mud, alternately formed and dissolved by the force of the 

current, but rocks and boulders of granite, which rise high above the river and resist 

its utmost force. The ruined convents and towers which crown the hills might almost 

cheat us into the belief that we were afloat on the Rhine or the Moselle, but for the 

tropical character of the scenery. 

This altered aspect of the scenery is in accordance with the political geography of 

the district. We have reached the southern boundary of Egypt, and are about to enter 

Nubia. The kingdom of the Pharaohs lies behind us, and we are on the borderland 

from which they marched for the conquest of Ethiopia. To this fact Ezekiel refers 

when, denouncing the Divine vengeance against Egypt, he says : " Behold, therefore, 
126 



ASSOUAN TO ABU-SIMBEL. 

I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly 
waste and desolate, from Migdol to Syene, even the border of Ethiopia." 1 

Assouan is a great centre for traffic with the interior. Caravans arrive from the 
desert, the camels are unloaded, and in a few days start again with consignments of 
manufactured articles — prints, beads, guns, powder — for barter with the native tribes. 
Dhows from Nubia and the Soudan, too heavily laden to descend the cataract, discharge 
their cargoes near Philse, to be borne overland to this point for transhipment to Cairo 
or Alexandria. A broad open space outside the town, on the bank of the river, serves 
at once as warehouse and exchange. Arabs, Turks, Negroes, Nubians, Abyssinians 
meet here on a footing of perfect equality. Trade levels all distinctions. Many of 
them are camped in native fashion. Bales of goods are arranged in a circle, so as 
to form a rampart against attack. In the centre a fire is kindled for cooking, around 
which the women and children lounge, whilst the men are chaffering in the bazaars, 




ISLAND OF ELEPHANTINE. 



or gossiping on the beach. All the products of central Africa may be bought here — 
elephants' tusks, odoriferous gums, ostrich feathers, ebony, clubs, poisoned arrows, 
shields of rhinoceros hide, strange birds, monkeys, and sometimes lions. I was 
asked fifteen pounds for a lion cub, about the size of a Newfoundland dog. Failing to 
find a purchaser, the owner gradually came down to four pounds ; but it remained unsold. 
It was a good-tempered little brute, playing about like a huge over-grown kitten, 
but an angry growl and ominous showing of the teeth gave warning of trouble at no 
distant period. 

Opposite Assouan is the Island of Elephantine, or, as it is called by the natives, 
Gezeeret ez Zaher, the Island of Flowers. It formed an outpost for the successive lords 
of Egypt — Pharaohs, Ptolemies, Caesars, and Saracen Caliphs — all of whom have left traces 
of their military occupation. The temples and the Nilometer, which, up to 1822, stood 
on the island, have almost disappeared, having been used as a quarry by the Governor 

Ezekiel xxix. 10, margin. Migdoi was the frontier town on the north-east, as Syene, or Assouan, was on the south. 

127 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 




AMEN, ISIS, AND CHONSU. 



of Assouan to build himself a palace. Only a few fragments now remain to excite our 

indignation against the vandalism of the destroyer. 

In continuing our journey from Assouan and Elephantine to Phike, we may either 

ride across the desert or ascend the cataract. If we adopt the former route, we shall 

probably have our first experience 
of camel-riding, and it will be far 
from agreeable. The animal has a 
peculiar gait, lifting both feet on the 
same side together, instead of the 
near fore-leg and off hind-leg, like 
v the horse. This gives a peculiar 
|K corkscrew motion to the spine of 
the rider, which becomes absolutely 
painful after a short time. Immedi- 
ately on leaving the town we pass 
the old Saracenic cemetery. Like 
all those of Modern Egypt, it is in 
a state of extreme neglect and di- 
lapidation. The dead are covered 
with a thin sprinkling of earth, 
scarcely sufficient to protect them 
from the ravages of hyenas and 
jackals. The modern burial-places 

thus offer a striking contrast to the imperishable monuments in which the embalmed 

bodies were deposited by the ancient Egyptians. We soon reach the quarries from 

which the huge blocks of syenite granite were hewn for the temples of Lower Egypt. 

As at Silsilis, the quarry marks of the workmen are 

yet distinctly visible, and the vast extent of the exca- 
vations gives an impressive sense of the scale upon 

which the old builders worked. An obelisk yet remains 

in the quarry ; it is about a hundred feet in height, by 

eleven feet two inches in breadth. When, and by 

whom it was cut out from the rock, and why it was 

left here instead of being removed to its destined site, 

cannot now be known. A similar mass of stone, 

hewn, squared, and prepared for removal, is found in 

the quarries near Baalbec. 

The road now enters a savage defile, even more 

stern and desolate than that leading to the Tombs of 

the Kings at Thebes. Bare granite rocks rise on 

either hand. The bed of the wady is strewn with 

granite boulders lying in wild confusion, many of them 

inscribed with hieroglyphics and sculptures. Traces 

of ruined fortifications are visible, intended either to protect traders from the attack of 

marauding Bedouin, or to close the pass against invading hordes from the south. Emerg- 
ing from the defile of rock and sand, and crossing a strip of desert, we reach the banks 
128 




HEAD OE BES. 




A KOPTIC WOMAN. 



ASSOUAN TO ABU-SIMBEL. 




ISIS COLUMNS WITH EASTERN COLONNADE AND PYLON. 



of the river above the cataract. A clump of magnificent sycamores affords grateful 
shade after a hot and weary ride, and Philae, with its exquisite loveliness, more than 
fnlfils our highly-raised expectations. 

Before describing the other route to Philae, it is necessary to explain that by the Cata- 
racts of the Nile, all that is meant is a series 
of rapids which rush down from just below 
the Island of Biggeh, to just above Elephan- 
tine. There is no actual cascade or cataract, 
in our sense of the word, but the river boils 
and rages along the narrow channel, and 
whirls in dangerous eddies around the rocks 
and islets which obstruct its course. From 
the language of Cicero and Seneca it seems 
probable that two thousand years ago the 
fall was greater than it is now. After ma- 
king allowance for the exaggerations into 
which classical writers fell when describing 
strange and unfamiliar scenes, it is difficult 
to suppose that they only saw what we now 
see. 

If the river be not too low, and the wind 
be fair, there is abundant excitement, but no real danger, in the ascent of the cataracts. 
The dahabieh sails smoothly on between the rocky islets above Elephantine till the first 
rapid is reached. This is commonly passed without any difficulty, if there be a good 
steady breeze. It is at the second rapid that the struggle begins. The rowers strain 

at their oars till they bend almost to break- 
ing. Long poles are thrust out against 
every rock in the channel to gain a pur- 
chase. The boatmen leap into the seething 
cauldron to carry a rope to some project- 
ing headland, whence they may haul the 
vessel against the current. The rets shouts 
and gesticulates to the crew like a madman. 
Sometimes the boat is caught in an eddy, 
whirled round, and seems to be on the point 
of destruction, but a shifting of the broad 
lateen sail, a turn of the helm, or the coil- 
ing of a rope round a mass of rock makes 
all right again. It is a scene of indescri- 
bable confusion. Everybody is bav/ling at 
the top of his voice. The orders of the 
reis are drowned in the hurly-burly. At 
length.by dint of poling and warping, the top 
■of the rapid is reached, and the vessel floats in smooth water once again. The current 
still runs strong, and vigorous rowing is needed for some distance, till we find ourselves off 

the village of Mahatta, and close upon the temple-crowned island which is our destination. 

131 




INTERIOR 



GREAT COURT. 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



£^uH&!Jii 



Scarcely less exciting than the ascent of the rapids by a dahabiyyeh, is the sight of 
the Nubians descending them. The people of the district ordinarily cross the river 
astride on a log of wood. Even little children paddle themselves to and fro with mar- 
vellous skill. Stripping off their, clothing, if they have any, and making it up into a 
bundle to carry on their heads, they move about in the water as though it were their 

native element. Afloat 
in the river on these 
rude aboriginal rafts, a 
score of men will let 
themselves be drawn 
down by the current 
into the maddest rush 
and whirl of the rapid, 
and having reached its 
foot, swim ashore and 
beg for backsheesh, 
which is seldom re- 
fused. 

The Island of Philae, 
which lies just above 
the first cataract, was 
sacred to Osiris, the 
most prominent figure 
in the Egyptian Pan- 
theon. The legends con- 
cerning him formed the 
centre of the Egyptian 
mythological system. 

The island is cov- 
ered with temples, but 
none of them are older 
than the era of the Pto- 
lemies. The original 
edifices were destroyed 
by Persian iconoclasts, 
and very few traces of 
them can be discov- 
ered. It is difficult to 
make out the general 
plan of the buildings, 
What Sir Gardner Wilkinson called the " symmetrophobia " of the Egyptians is 
here most strikingly illustrated. Where a modern architect would secure a mag- 
nificent vista by avenues leading in straight lines to a central and commanding 
point, they broke up the ground-plan into detached and unsymmetrical portions. No 
part of the edifice corresponded in design to any other part. Propylons, gateways, 
side-chapels, seem to have been placed just where the whim of the builder dictated, 

i3j 




PORTICO OP TEMPLE AT PHILJI. 



ASSOUAN TO ABU-SIMBEL. 



with little or no regard to the production of an harmonious and well-balanced whole. 
This is specially true of the edifices on Philse. 

The most conspicuous building on the island is a hypaethral hall, near the landing- 
place, vulgarly known as Pharaoh's bed. It is detached from the main temple, and 
its builder and purpose are alike unknown. It can hardly have been a temple, and 
may possibly have been erected merely as an architectural feature. The most probable 
view is that it was a com- 
paratively modern erection 
over the assumed grave of 
Osiris. Its situation is 
very striking, and it har- 
monizes well with the sur- 
rounding scenery ; but I 
should hardly go the 
length of Mr. Fairholt, 
who pronounces it "the 
most exquisite in its effect 
-of any in Egypt." 

The great temple of Isis was approached by a quay and a flight oi steps leading up 
from the river at the southern end of the island. The visitor then passed between a 
pair of obelisks, of which only one is now standing, and along an avenue of Isis- 
headed columns to the great propylon. A peristyle court and a small temple, sacred to 
Horus, are then entered ; another smaller propylon succeeds, and we reach the grand 
portico of the temple of Isis, its columns glowing with color, their capitals delicately 
and exquisitely designed from lotus, acacia, and palm leaves. This general plan, 
.however, fails to give any idea of the bewildering mazes of corridors, halls, and shrines 
which succeed one another. Perhaps the most interesting portion of the building is a 




CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS AT PHILE. 






CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS AT PHIL^. 



small chapel constructed upon the roof of one of the terraces. The sculptures in this 
chamber represent the history of Osiris. We see the mangled remains of the slain 
monarch brought together, women are weeping round his bier, whilst the symbol of 
the soul hovers over the corpse. Gradually the signs of returning life are 
indicated. Winged figures, like the cherubim of Scripture, stand around, overshadow- 
ing and guarding the body with their wings. The mystic legend unfolds itself step by 

133 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 




MUD HUTS. 



step, till Osiris is seen robed, crowned, seated upon his throne, bearing in his hands^ 
which are crossed upon his breast, the insignia of empire, and he is installed as the 
mighty and beneficent ruler of the invisible world. 

On the downfall of the Egyptian mythology, Philee became an important Christian 
colony. The monks who settled here, like those at Beni Hassan, defaced the symbols 
of the old faith and substituted for them those of Christianity. Some of these are very 

curious. We have not only the cross of 
the ordinary form with the familiar addition 
of the palm branch of victory, or inclosed 
within a circle of amaranth, symbolizing 
eternity, but we find strange combinations 
of unusual forms with fanciful additions, of 
which it is often difficult to discover the 
meaning. Thus the Jerusalem cross, as it is 
now called, appears with a semicircle on. 
each of its arms, or with globes at each 
extremity and grouped round the centre. 
What looks at first like a mere arabesque 
or geometrical pattern resolves itself into 
a series of crosses, with that of St. Andrew 
in the centre, and triangles at each corner,, 
as types of the Trinity. At this distance of time it is impossible to say how far these 
rude inscriptions were expressive of a true spiritual faith in the Divine verities thus 
symbolized. But from what we know of the character of the Egyptian monks, there 
is but too much reason to fear that they only represent a gross superstition scarcely 
more respectable than the heathenism they replaced. One great cause of the rapid 
spread of Mohammedanism in the seventh century was the idolatry and degraded su- 
perstition into which the Church had then fallen. And at the present day one main hin- 
drance to the progress of Christianity 
amongst the Moslems is their deep-rooted 
belief that it is essentially idolatrous — a be- 
lief created and fostered by the creed and 
ritual of the Greek, Latin, and Coptic 
churches. Slowly this erroneous idea is 
being dispelled by the teaching of Protes- 
tant evangelists. But everywhere through- 
out the Mohammedan world, I have found 
that the worship of the crucifix, of Mary, 
and of the saints, has raised an almost insu- 
perable prejudice against Christianity. 
Strange that a faith which teaches that 
" God is a spirit : and they that worship 
Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth," should, by the misrepresentations of its 
avowed adherents, have been exposed to such a charge. 

The general aspect of Nubian scenery is similar to that of Egypt, but with some 

marked differences. The Nile flows on through a valley with mountain ranges on either 
134 




sheikh's house. 



ASSOUAN TO ABU-SIMBEL. 



hand. Its banks, fertilized by the river, are of a rich emerald green. Beyond this 
narrow strip of verdure all is bare rock and barren sand. But the mountain-sides are 
more precipitous, and come down nearer to the water's edge, thus diminishing the area 
to which the annual inundation rises, and, as a consequence, the cultivable soil is pro- 
portionately less. Artifical irrigation becomes more than ever needful, and sakiehs and 
shadoofs are seen all along the river banks. The population is scanty. The soil indeed 
is wonderfully productive, but there is so little of it, that large numbers are compelled 
to emigrate to Cairo or Alexandria, and find employment as water-carriers, donkey- 
drivers, or laborers. The cottages are often mere walls of baked mud, covered with 
thatch, with only a single chamber in each. Some of the sheikhs' houses, however, are 
very picturesque, and are built in the curious fashion which we have seen in Upper 
Egypt. The upper parts are ornamented with 
bands of plaster cornices, and rows of earth- 
ern pots are let into the walls, to serve as 
pigeon-houses. 

The landscape has been gradually becoming 
more tropical in character, so that we actually 
enter the tropics a little way above Philae 
without being conscious of any marked change. 
Doum palms, which we first saw just below 
Thebes, are striking features in the landscape. 
Some of them attain great size, and afford an 
agreeable contrast to the bare columnar stems 
of the date palm. Fields of maize, millet, cot- 
ton, and sugar-cane line the banks, and produce 
three harvests in the year, with little toil to the 
cultivator, beyond that required for raising 
water from the river for purposes of irrigation. 
Most of the work in the fields is done by wo- 
men and children. The men have either gone 
down into Egypt, or are working on the banks 
of the river, or are gossiping under the pleasant 
shade of the palms. The old women are at 
home minding the babies, or grinding corn, or 
baking bread. The young girls are busy in the 

fields picking cotton, or reaping, or sowing the seed for the next harvest. It is at the 
wayside well that the life of the people may be best seen. A pleasant picture of the 
groups which gather there has been drawn by Howard Hopley in the Leisure Hour. 

" We lay hidden one day beneath a screen of intertwisted palm fronds, dreamily lapped 
in a kind of doze — a slumbrous feeling communicated, I believe by watching the shame- 
ful inactivity of a tribe of birds in their twilight cloisters above of boughs swinging gently 
in the lazy airs of summer's noon, — birds that manifestly toiled not for their living, but 
took it on trust, flaunting themselves in the most gorgeous plumage imaginable, and 
neither singing, nor even chatting, for the matter of that. We were lying here, I say, 
when we espied through our leafy screen the advent of some travelers. A mother and 

two children — a chubby unclad urchin of two or three, and an elder sister — entered from 

135 




NUBIAN WOMAN. 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

the outer glare and squatted down in the golden light filtering from above on to the 
sandy area of the grove. They could not have traveled far, for they came in so glad- 
some and fresh. The daughter, a fine-grown girl of twelve, ran off to the well and 
tripped back playfully, with one hand daintily steadying an earthen bowl, dripping over 
with the grateful drink. Her mother awaited it, her back against a palm, in the attitude 
of Judcea Capta on the Roman coin. How these Nubian faces flash out sometimes an 
intelligence that no one would give them credit for! This woman, under thirty, perhaps, 
yet already old and wrinkled, might have been handsome enough once, but the expres- 
sion of her face was dull and stolid — of the earth earthy. Yet as she sat there straining 
her little blackamoor to her breast, the soul came up in her face, and she looked posi- 
tively beautiful. It was like lighting the candle within the lantern. She wore a tunic 




■ jfc-^ - • | 111P 

NUBIAN MUSICIANS. 



of camel-hair fabric, Nubian fashion, looped up on each shoulder, leaving the arms bare. 
It had more the cut of the Greek palla, than the skirt of the Egyptian fellah — a kind 
of extra fold falling from the neck to the waist. The daughter, a pretty little woman, 
lissom and shapely, you might have taken for a dryad of the wood. Just budding into 
the woman, she retained all the playfulness of the child, and romped free in the changing 
leafy lights of this copse, as if her life were all play. There was something so gracious 
and winsome about her that you could not find heart to cavil. Yet her hair was reek- 
ing with castor-oil, and I am afraid the gloss on her supple limbs was attributable to that 
same unguent. She seemed almost perfect in form ; and the hair in question, which fell 
in a hundred little plaits about her shoulders (shortened in a line across the forehead), 

framed a face of which the big black eyes, pouted lips, and placid mien, seemed an echo 
136 



ASSOUAN TO ABU-SIMBEL. 



of those sweet faces you see pictured in the old tombs — an echo from a far-back world. 
Her sole dress, save a necklace or two of beads, was a short petticoat of tiny strips of 
leather, a kind of fringe decked out coquettishly with a multitude of cowry shells and 
glass beads, all of which tinkled merrily as she skipped along. You could not, for the 
life of you, call it an immodest costume, the thing was go natural and innocent. Indeed, 
in this country, until girls marry, such is their only dress, save a slight veil thrown over 
the head against the sun." 

Though Nubia did not form 
part of Egypt proper, yet at the 
present day it more closely re- 
sembles the Egypt of the Phara- 
ohs than does the region of the 
Lower Nile. 

Cut off from the rest of the 
world by the cataract on the 
north, and by the desert on the 
east and west, its population has 
been kept pure from the inter- 
mixture of foreign blood, and its 
manners and customs have re- 
mained almost unchanged. Faces 
are depicted on the monuments 
which might pass for portraits of 
those whom we see around us. 
The contour of the features is 
precisely the same. This likeness 
is rendered more obvious by a 
similarity in the mode of dressing 

the hair, which is arranged in small cork-screw curls, kept close to the head by satura- 
tion with castor-oil. The necklaces, earrings, and bracelets are the same as those worn 
three or four thousand years ago. In any Nubian hut, wooden pillows or head-rests 

may be found whose form is absolutely undis- 
tinguishable from those which may be seen 
in the British Museum, brought there from 
Theban tombs. 

The temples of Nubia are even more nu- 
merous than those of Egypt. But being 
w x. ^uowwj/ . ,, ^ ■■■■■■W placed there by foreign rulers as trophies of 

v \ ^s/ /W^^ ^^^^j their victories, they have little historical im- 

portance, and, except those of Abu-Simbel, 
present few remarkable features. That of 
Dandour is of the Roman period, and was 
founded in the reiom of Augustus. It is 
curious as an illustration of the way in which classical architects worked upon native 
models. In some points there is an almost servile imitation of the original, and yet 

the whole tone and feeling are thoroughly non-Egyptian. It does not need a study 

139 




A ROADSIDE WELL. 




EGYPTIAN GIRL. 



WOODEN PILLOW. 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



of the inscriptions to tell us that, though dedicated to Osiris, Isis, and Horus, the sway 
of those deities had already passed away. 

Though the temple at Dekkeh is but little older than that at Dandour, it has an 
interesting history. Its adytum was built by Ergamun, an Ethiopian monarch, who 
broke through the barbarous customs of his race and set at defiance the tyranny of 
the priests. Diodorus tells us that up to this time the priests had always informed 
the king w r hen the time had arrived for him to die, whereupon, in obedience to their 
commands, he slew himself. This strange custom seems to have grown out of a feeling, 
like that which prevailed among our Norse ancestors, that it was disgraceful for a 
warrior to die from disease or old age, and the sagas record several instances of aged 

chiefs rushing on certain death to escape 
so dishonorable an end. Sir Gardner 
Wilkinson points out that a similar custom 
yet exists among certain Ethiopian races 
which lie farther to the south. Ergamun 
having received the intimation that the 
time had come to immolate himself, he 
not only refused to obey, but collecting 
his troops, marched to the temple, slew 
the priests, and effected a thorough re- 
form of the whole system. Ergamun 
clearly distinguished between submission 
to the priests and reverence for the gods, 
for he is represented on the walls of the 
temple as making the accustomed offer- 
ings to the deities, and the usual car- 
touches declare that he was " protected 
by Amon, the chosen of Ra, and the be- 
loved of Isis." 

About twenty-five miles above Dekkeh 
are the remains of a temple belonging to 
the earliest period, that of Rameses the 
Great. It is called by the Arabs the 
Wady Sabooah, the Valley of the Lions, 
from the avenues of sphinxes which led up to the propylon in front of the temple. 
At the entrance of the avenue stand two colossal statues of Rameses, with sculptures 
recording his victories and celebrating his glories. Most of the sphinxes are buried in 
the sand which has drifted over them, but their huge heads protruding from the plain 
have a most impressive effect, and fill with awe the wandering Bedouin, who regard 
them as the work of demons. 

Sailing up the river for about seventy miles above Wady Sabooah, through ranges 
of desert hills, sloping down to green banks, studded with palm and mimosa, or 
standing cliff-like over the stream, we see before us a bold mass of rock upon which, 
as we approach it, colossal figures become visible. They are so vast that they look 
like some freak of nature rather than the work of puny men. It is Abu-Simbel — one 

of the temples of the great Rameses and worthy to rank with the edifices of Thebes 
140 




TEMPLE OP DANDOUR. 



ASSOUAN TO ABU-STMBEL. 



or Gizeh. Elsewhere, the great Egyptian builders had erected their edifices upon the 
surface of the earth. Here a mountain had been hollowed into shrines for the gods, 
and hewed into imperishable monuments of the glory of Pharaoh. 

The smaller of the two temples is cut into the rock to the depth of ninety feet. It 
was dedicated to Athor, the Lady of Aboshek, as she is called. The facade, ninety 
feet in length, represents Rameses standing among the gods, as though their equal in 
dignity and power. In the interior, the mild, gentle face of the goddess appears on the 
walls amongst her kin- 
dred deities, whilst the 
hero-king records his 
conquests of the world 
as far as it was then 
known. 

Elsewhere this tem- 
ple would rivet our at- 
tention upon itself: 
here it is dwarfed al- 
most into insignificance 
by its companion. 
Four granite warders 
hewn out of the living 
rock keep watch at its 
portals, seated in sol- 
emn majesty, as they 
have sat for nearly four 
thousand years. Fig- 
ures fail to convey any 
adequate sense of their 
magnitude. As given 
by Murray, their di- 
mensions are as fol- 
lows : " Their total 
height is about sixty- 
six feet without the 
pedestal ; the ear meas- 
ures three feet five 
inches ; from the inner 
side of elbow joint to 
end of middle finger, 
fifteen feet. The total 

height of the facade of the temple may be between ninety and one hundred feet." 
The lower part of the figures is buried in sand, but they tower so high above 
the drifted mass, that it is a task of some labor to climb up into the lap of one of 
them. 

The beauty of the faces is even more remarkable than their enormous magnitude. 

Usually we associate a coarseness and rudeness of finish with great size in works of art : 

141 




ENTKANCE OF THE TEMPLE OF DEKKEH. 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



but every visitor is struck by the delicacy and expressiveness ot the features. One 

writer speaks of 
"the sweet sad 
smile of the placid 
pensive face : " an- 
other is fascinated 
by " the expression 
placid and cheerful 
— full of moral 
grace : " a third sees 
in them "a dignity 
and composure, a 
tranquil pity, a se- 
rene hopefulness 
more than human :" 
a fourth says, "They 
are unique in art. 
The masterpieces 
of Greece, higher in 
rank, have nothing 
to match with the 
mystic beauty of 
these. " There may 
be some exaggera- 
tion in these words. 
And yet the solemn 
expressiveness of 
these colossi can- 
not be doubted. 

The head of one 
of the statues is 
broken off, the oth- 
er three are toler- 
ably pefect. On the 
leg of one of them 
is a curious Greek 
inscription. Hero- 
dotus relates that 
the troops of King 
Psammetichus who 
were stationed at 
Syene, growing 
weary and muti- 
nous, deserted, and 
-fled into Ethiophia. They were pursued by order of the king. Two of the soldiers who 

^were sent to bring back the fugitives have here recorded the fact, and given their 
142 




ASSOUAN TO ABU-S1MBEL. 

names — Damearchon and Pelephus — as forming part of the expedition. It is seldom 
that a historical narrative receives such contemporaneous illustration and confirma- 
tion. Still more seldom is it that the bad, though ancient, custom of scratching obscure 
•names upon a venerable monument possesses any value whatever. 

The mountain behind these gigantic figures is hollowed out to a depth of about two 
^hundred feet. The excavations consist of a grand hall, with eight side chapels opening 
into it, a second smaller hall, a corridor, and an adytum with altar and figures in relief. 
The walls are covered with paintings and sculptures, and in the grand hall are eight 
■colossal Osiride columns twenty feet in height, each standing erect with its back against 
a square shaft, thus forming a central aisle. They are all exactly alike, with the same 
placid solemn expression as those in the fagade. Each is crowned with the serpent- 
crested Pshent, and holds in its hands, which are crossed upon the breast, the crook and 
zflail or scourge, emblems of divine power and judgment. They are robed from head to 




FACADE OF SMALLER TEMPLE AT ABU-SIMBEL. 

foot in the close-fitting tunic or shroud of death. Round the lions a belt is tied, 
falling in lappets upon the knee, and bearing the cartouche of Rameses. 

The walls are glowing with color, like the pages of an illuminated missal magnified 
a thousandfold. Their theme is everywhere the same — the glory of Rameses. We 
cannot fail, however, to be struck by the contrast between the tranquil, gentle face of 
the deified monarch, and the deeds of savage ferocity which are here ascribed to him. 
Long lines of captives are led bound before him on their way to execution. He himself 
is depicted as slaying them with a pitiless cruelty. In one sculpture he is grasping by 
their hair a group of prisoners, representing the various nations, African and Asiatic, 
which he has conquered. With his uplifted sword he is about to decapitate them. 
The god Amon hands him a scimitar, in token of his approval of the deed. We 
follow the mighty conqueror throughout his campaigns. In one place he is charg- 
ing in his war-chariot upon a whole phalanx of Scythians. In another, he, single- 
handed, slays their chief. In a third he is laying waste the territory of the Ethi- 

143 



'I HE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



opians. But everywhere his countenance wears the same expression c.i tranquility 
and repose which nothing can disturb. 

The entrance to the temple is so small, that only a feeble ray of light can penetrate, 
leaving the halls in utter darkness, which is imperfectly dispelled by the aid of candles 
or torches. 1 But as the opening is towards the east, there are certain seasons of 
the year at which the light of the rising sun or moon falls full into the vast area. This 
of course only happens when the point on the horizon at which the luminary rises 
exactly fronts the entrance, that is to say, twice in the year with the sun, once a month 

with the moon. 
Then for a few min- 
utes a beam of light 
streams through the 
narrow portal, pen- 
etrates the great 
hall, and finds its 
way into the very 
adytum, illumina- 
ting as with magical 
• effect the figures 
there. This inner- 
most shrine was 
dedicated to the 
Sun and Moon, 
whose symbols are 
over the altar. W e 
may, therefore, con- 
jecture that the in- 
ternal arrange- 
ments of the temple 
were originally 
planned so that on 
the great festivals 
this impressive 
spectacle might be 
witnessed. 

At Abu-Simbel 
our Egyptian tour 
terminates. We drift slowly down the Nile, gliding past the ruins of departed great- 
ness. As we revisit the shattered monuments of the most gigantic system of idolatry 
which the world has ever seen, the contrast between bygone glory and present degra- 
dation is forced upon us. It is impossible to forget that when Egypt was at the sum- 
mit of its pride and power, its impending doom was again and again foretold by Hebrew 
prophets. When Thebes was in her glory, and her subsequent conquerors were only 
wild hordes of the desert, Joel began the warning : 

1 Visitors to Egypt should on no account omit to take with them a plentiful supply 01 magnesium wire, and an ordinary buTs- 
eye lantern. The value of the latter for concentrating light on particular points is very great. 
144 




PABT OF FACADE OF GREAT TEMPLE AT ABU-SIMBEL. 



ASSOUAN TO ABU-S1MBEL. 

" Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, 
For the violence agaii st the children of Judah, 
Because they have shed innocent blood in their land. 
But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.'" 1 

A hundred years later, Isaiah renewed the burden : 

" The Eg\ ptLns will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord ; 
And a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts. 
Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, 

The counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish : 
How say ye unto Pharaoh, I am thesnn of the wise, the son of ancient kings?" 2 




GBEAT TEMPLE AT ABU-SIMBEL. 



The doom was again denounced by Ezekiel, when the destroyer was nearer at hand, 
yet still before the long and flourishing reign of Amasis : 

"I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, 
The great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, 
Which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for mysell. 
And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord, 
Because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. 
And the sword shall come upon Egvpt, and great pain shall be in Ethiopia, 
When the slain sh .11 fall in Egypt, and they shall take away her multitude, 
And her foundations shall be broken down. 
And they shall know that I am the Lord, 

When I have set fire in Egvpt, and when all her helpers shall be destroyed. 
Thus saith the Lord God : I will also destroy the idols, 

1 Joel iii. 19, 20. * Isaiah xix. 4, n. 

145 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 




And I will cause their images to cease out of Nopii ; 

And there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt : 

And I will put a fear in the land of E *ypt, and I will make Pathros desolate, 

And will set fire in Zoan, and will execute 

judgments in No. 
And I will pour My fury upon Sin, the 

strength of Egypt ; 
And I will cut off the mulitude of No. 
And I will set fire in Egypt : Sin shall 

have great pain, 
And No shall be rent asunder, and Noph 

shall have distresses daily. 
The young men of Avon and of Pi-beseth 

shall fall by the sword : 
And these cities shall go into captivity. 
At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be dark- 
ened, 
When I shall break there the yokes of 

Egypt : 
And the pomp of her streng.h shall cease 

in her : 
As for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her 

daughter shall go into captivity. 
Thus will I execute judgments in Egypt : 

and they shall know that I am the Lord. " x 
THOPIAN, NEGRO, AND ASIATIC CAPTIVES BEFORE EAMESES. 

Blended with these denunciations 
of impending ruin are the promises of a bright and glorious future. As we trace 
the exact and literal fulfilment of the one, we gain new confidence in the full and final 
accomplishment of the other. If 
He " who delighteth in mercy, and 
judgment is his strange work," has 
not allowed one word of His threat- 
enino;s to fail, how much more shall 
His gracious assurances of pardon 
and restoration be verified? 

" In that day there shall be an altar to the 

Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, 
And a pillar at the border thereof to the 

Lord. 
And it shall be for a sign and for a witness 

unto the Lord of hosts in the land of 

Egypt : 
For they shall cry unto the Lord because 

of the oppressors, 
And he shall send them a saviour, and a 

great one, and He shall deliver them. 
And the Lord shall be known to Egypt, 

and the Egyptians shall know the Lord 

in that day, 




RAMESES SLAYING A GROUP OF AFRICAN AND ASIATIC CAPTIVES- 



And shall do sacrifice and oblation ; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the Lord, and perform it. 
And the Lord shall smite Egypt : He shall smite and heal it : 

i Ezekiel xx:x. 3, 6 ; xxx. 4, 8, 13-19. 

m6 



ASSOUAN TO ABU-SIMBEL. 

And they shall return even to the Lord, 
And he shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them. 
In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, 
And the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, 
And the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. 
In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, 

Even a blessing in the midst of the land : whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, 
Blessed be Egypt My people, 

And Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel Mine inheritance." 1 

1 Isaiah xix. 19-25. 




MENEPHTAH, THE PKOBABLE PHAEAOH OP THE EXODUS. 



147 




ENTRANCE PASSAGE TO THE EMPTY TOMB OP SETI I. 



SECTION IV. 



Recent Discoveries in Egypt. 



O I NCE the first edition of this work was printed, Egyptology has made very great 
^ strides. The language is better known, multitudes of papyri, stelae, 1 and inscrip- 
tions of various kinds have been translated. We know much more of the social and 
religious ideas of the marvellous nation who, in the dawn of history, peopled the valley 
of the Nile. This period has also witnessed some of the most surprising, interesting, 
and important discoveries of antiquities that have ever been made in Egypt. In the 
brief limits at our disposal, nothing like a complete sketch of these can be attempted. 
We can refer at any length to only the most important, viz., the great find at Deir-el- 
Bahari, and give a hasty glance at a few others. 

The most wonderful event in recent Egyptian history is the now world-famous dis- 
covery at Deir-el-Bahari in 1881. Prior to the occurrence of the event, had any one 
ventured to assert that the mummy of Thotmes in. would ever be found, that should we 
be able to look upon the real face of Rameses 11. , the Pharaoh of the Oppression, that, 
in one great discovery, we should come upon many of the most famous kings and queens 

1 Small columns without base or capital, with memorial inscriptions. 
148 







pa 

H 

Ph 
Ph 
t> 

H 

IK 
Eh 

O 

02 

O 

o 

o 

P3 

© 



RECENT DISCOVERIES IN EGYPT. 



in Egyptian history, these statements would nave been considered entirely out of the 
range of probability. Yet all this and more has come to pass. 

During the early part of 1881, various reports and rumors were current relative to a 
great discovery of antiquities in the neighborhood of Thebes, and that the secret, what- 
ever its nature, was the possession of four Arab brothers named Abd-er-Rasul, who 
lived among the rock-cut tombs hard by the Ramesseum. Professionally these men 
were guides ; actually they spent most of their time in breaking into tombs and securing 
mummies, which, contrary to law, 
they sold to whomsoever would 
buy them. Early in 1881, Mas- 
pero caused Ahmed Adb-er-Rasul 
to be imprisoned, and for two 
months he was shut up at Keneh. 
The monotony of prison life was 
varied by occasional bastinado, 
and by threats of execution if he 
did not reveal all he knew. He 
endured all this, and yet kept 
riorht we ll hi s secret But an- 
other brother, named Moham- 
med, attracted by Maspero's judi- 
cious offer of considerable bak- 
sheesh to the man who could and 
would satisfy his curiosity, made 
a clean breast of it, and on July 
5th, 1 88 1, led Brugsch Bey, whom 
Maspero had sent from Cairo to 
act for him, to Deir-el-Bahari. 
How and when the Arab brethren 
came upon their find is to this day 
their own secret. 1 

After a long clinb up the moun- 
tain slope, and the scaling of a 
high limestone cliff, behind a great 
rock a shaft about six feet square 
was found, which had been sunk 
some forty feet into the limestone. 
At the foot of this a passage ran 
westwards for twenty-five feet, and then northwards into the heart of the mountain, 
terminating in a sepulchral chamber twenty-three feet by thirteen in extent, and about 
six feet high. 

What followed cannot be better told than in Brugsch Bey's own words. 

" Finding Pharaoh," he told Mr. Wilson, " was an exciting experience for me. It is 
true I was armed to the teeth, and my faithful rifle, full of shells, hung over my shoulder; 

' Most interesting accounts of this event are found in the article called "Lying in State at Cairo," by Miss Fdwards, in Harper's 
Magazine for July, 1882 ; and in the articles "Finding Pharaoh," by E. L. Wilsou, and "Pharaoh the Oppressor," by John A. 
Paine, in the Century for May, 1S87. The Editor received much valuable help from these articles in preparing this section. 

151 




OUTEK MUMMY CASE OP QUEEN NEFERT-ARL 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

but my assistant from Cairo, Ahmed Effendi Kemal, was the only person with me whom 
I could trust. Any one of the natives would have killed me willingly, had we been alone, 
for every one of them knew better than I did that I was about to deprive them of a great 
source of revenue. But I exposed no sign of fear, and proceeded with the work. The 
well cleared out, I descended, and began the exploration of the underground passage. 

Soon we came upon cases of porcelain funeral offerings, metal and alabaster vessels, 
draperies and trinkets, until, reaching the turn in the passage, a cluster of mummy-cases 
came into view in such number as to stagger me. Collecting my senses, I made the 
best examination of them I could by the light of my torch, and at once saw that they 
contained the mummies of royal personages of both sexes ; and yet that was not all. 
Plunging on ahead of my guide, I came to the chamber, and there, standing against the 
walls or lying on the floor, I found even a greater number of mummy-cases of stupendous 
size and weight. Their gold coverings, and their polished surfaces so plainly reflected 
my own excited visage, that it seemed as though I was looking into the faces of my own 
ancestors. The gilt face on the coffin of the amiable Queen Nefert-ari seemed to smile 
upon me like an old acquaintance. 

I took in the situation quickly with a gasp, and hurried to the open air, lest I should 
be overcome, and the glorious prize, still unrvealed, be lost to science. It was almost 
sunset then. Already the odor which arose from the tomb had cajoled a troupe of slink- 
ing jackals to the neighborhood, and the howl of hyenas was heard not far distant. A 
long line of vultures sat upon the highest pinnacles of the cliffs near by, ready for their 
hateful work. The valley was as still as death. Nearly the whole of the night was 
occupied in hiring men to help remove the precious relics from their hiding-place. 
There was but little sleep in Luxor that night. 

Early the next morning three hundred Arabs were employed under my direction — 
each one a thief. One by one the coffins were hoisted to the surface, were securely 
sewed up in sail-cloth and matting, and then were carried across the plain of Thebes to 
to the steamers awaiting them at Luxor. Two squads of Arabs accompanied each sar- 
cophagus — one to carry it, and a second to watch the wily carriers. When the Nile 
overflow, lying midway of the plain, was reached, as many more boatmen entered the 
service, and bore the burden to the other side. Then a third set took up the ancient 
freight, and carried it to the steamers. Slow workers are these Egyptians, but after six 
days of hard labor, under the July sun, the work was finished. 

I shall never forget the scenes I witnessed when standing at the mouth of the shaft, 
I watched the strange line of helpers while they carried across the historical plain the 
bodies of the very kings who had constructed the temples still standing, and of the very 
priests who had officiated in them — the temple of Hatshepsu nearest ; away across from 
it, Gurneh ; further to the right the Ramesseum, where the great granite monolith lies 
face to the ground ; further south, Medinet Abu, a long way beyond the Deirel-Medineh ; 
and there the twin Colossi, or the vocal Memnon and his companion ; then, beyond all, 
some more of the plain, the line of the Nile, and the Arabian hills far to the east and 
above all ; and with all, slowly moving down the cliffs and across the plain, or in the boats 
crossing the sea, were the sullen laborers earring their antique burdens. As the Red 
Sea opened and allowed Israel to pass across dry-shod, so opened the silence of the Theban 
plain, allowed the strange funeral procession to pass, — and then all was hushed again. 

When we made our departure from Luxor, our late helpers squatted in groups upon 

152 



RECENT DISCO VERIES IN EGYPT. 



the Theban side and silently watched us. The news had been sent down the Nile in 
advance of us. So, when we passed the towns, the people gathered at the quays, and 
made most frantic demonstrations. The fantasia dancers were holding their wildest 
orgies here and there ; a strange wail went up from the men, the women were screaming 
and tearing their hair, and the children were so frightened I pitied them. A few fanatical 
dervishes plunged into the river and tried to reach us, but a sight of the rifle drove them 
back, cursing us as they swam away. At night fires were kindled and guns were fired. 

At last we arrived 
at Bulak, where I soon 
confirmed my impres- 
sion that we had in 
deed recovered the 
mummies of the ma- 
jority of the rulers of 
Egypt during the 
XVIIIth, XlXth and 
XXIst dynasties, in- 
cluding Rameses 11., 
Rameses in., King 
Pinetem, the high 
priest Nebseni, and 
Queen Nefert-ari, all 
of whom are now at 
Bula.k,arranged pretty 
much as I found them 
in the long-hidden 
tomb. And thus our 
Museum became the 
third and probably the 
final resting-place of 
the mummy of the 
great Pharaoh of the 
Oppression." 

On leaving the 
chamber in the moun- 
tain where these mum- 
mies had so lono- re- 
posed — for it was in 
that very place that 

Brugsch Bey told Mr. Wilson the story — at the entrance to the shaft the latter photo- 
graphed the group of which we give here an engraving. It possesses more than passing 
interest, since it shows the entrance to the shaft ; reclining on the right is Professor 
Maspero, standing in the center is Brugsch Bey, and the Arab in the foreground is Mo- 
hammed Abd-el-Rasul, holding in his hand the rope by which the mummies of kings 
and queens and priests who lived from 3,000 to 4,000 years ago, were hauled up from 
their long-lost tomb. 




Mohammed. Brugsch. Maspero. 

MASPERO BRUGSCH BEY, AND MOHAMMED ABD-ER-RASUL. 

\As photographed by E. L. Wilson at the mouth of the shaft at Dezr-el-Bahari.) 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

The following is a list of tae mummies of kings and queens removed to Bulak, around 
whom most historic interest centers : — 

King Sekenen-Ra Ta-aken and Queen Ansera, of the XVIIth Dynasty ; Queen 
Ahmes Nefert-ari, King Amenhetep i., Thothmes n., and Thothmes in., of the XVIIIth 
Dynasty ; Seti I., Rameses n., and Rameses in., of the XlXth Dynasty ; Queen Netem- 
Maut, King Pinetem i., and King Pinetem n., of the XXIst Dynasty. 

Some of the sarcophagi of these royal personages are of huge dimensions, the largest 
being that of Queen Ahmes Nefert-ari. The coffin is ten feet long, made of cartonnage, 
and in style resembles one of the Osiride pillars of the Temple of Medinet Abu. Its 
weight and size are so enormous that sixteen men were required to remove it. 

Standing near the end of the long dark passage running northward, and not far from 
the threshold of the vault, lay the sarcophagus of Thothmes in., close to that of his 
brother Thothmes n. The mummy-case of the latter was in a lamentable condition, and 
had evidently been broken into and subjected to rough usage. On the lid, however, 
were recognized the well-known cartouches of this illustrious monarch. On opening the 
coffin the mummy itself was exposed to view, completely enshrouded with bandages ; 
but a rent near the left breast showed that it had been exposed to the violence of tomb- 
breakerSo Placed inside the coffin, and surrounding the body, were found wreaths of 
flowers — larkspurs, acacias, and lotuses. The body measured only five feet two inches • 
so that, making due allowance for shrinking and compression in the process of embalm- 
ing, still it is manifest that Thothmes in. was not a man of commanding stature, but in 
shortness of stature as in brilliancy of conquests, finds his counterpart in the person of 
Napoleon the Great. 

Soon after the arrival of these precious relics at Bulak, it was thought desirable in the 
interests of science to ascertain whether the mummy bearing the monogram of Thothmes 
in. was really the remains of that monarch. It was therefore unrolled. The inscrip- 
tions on the bandages established beyond all doubt the fact that it was indeed the most 
distinguished of the kings of the brilliant XVIIIth dynasty; and once more, after an 
interval of thirty-six centuries, human eyes gazed on the features of the man who had 
conquered Syria, and Cyprus, and Ethiopia, and had raised Egypt to the highest pinna- 
cle of her power ; so that it was said that in his reign she placed her frontiers were she 
pleased. The spectacle was of brief duration ; the remains proved to be in so fragile a 
state that there was only time to take a hasty photograph, and then the features crum- 
bled to pieces and vanished like an apparition, and so passed away from human view 
for ever. Professor Maspero felt such remorse at this result that, for fear of a similar 
catastrophe, the unrolling of Rameses the Great was delayed until 1886. 

Thothmes in. was the man who overran Palestine with his armies two hundred years 
before the birth of Moses, and has left us a diary of his adventures ; for, like Caesar, he 
was author as well as soldier. It seems strange that though the body mouldered to dust, 
the flowers with which it had been wreathed were so wouderfully preserved that even 
their color could be distinguished ; yet a flower is the very type of ephemeral beauty, 
that passeth away and is gone almost as soon as born. A Wasp which had been at- 
tracted by the floral treasures, and had entered the coffin at the moment of closing, was 
found dried up, but still perfect, having lasted better than the king. 

A most interesting account of the mightiest of Egyptian kings is given in Maspero's 

report of the unrolling of the mummies of Rameses n. and of what had been consid- 
154 



RECENT DISCOVERIES IN EGYPT. 



ered to be the mummy of Queen Nefert-ari, but which turned out to be Rameses in. 
It is dated June 3rd, 1886, two days only before Maspero resigned his post as Curator 
of the Museum. 

"Bulak, June 3, 1886. — -The year 1886, the 1st day of June, MM. Gaston Maspero, 
Director-General of the Excavations and Antiquities of Egypt, Emil Brugsch Bey, 
keeper, and Urbin Bouriant, assistant keeper, of the Museum of Bulak, proceeded, in 
the hall called The Hall of Royal Mummies, to unbandage those two mummies which, 
in the printed catalogue, are numbered 5,229 and 5,233,, both being among those 
discovered in the subterraneous hiding-place at Deir-el-Bahari. 

The mummy (No. 5,233) first taken out from its glass case is that of Rameses 11. , 
Sesostris, as testified by the offical entries bearing date the 6th and 16th years of the 
reign of the High Priest Herhor Se-Amen, and the High Priest Pinetem 1., written in 
black ink upon the lid of the wooden mum- 
my case, and the further entry of the 16th 
year of the High Priest Pinetem 1., written 
upon the outer winding-sheet of the mum- 
my, over the region of the breast. The 
presence of this last inscription having been 
verified by His Highness the Khedive, and 
by the illustrious personages there assembled, 
the first wrapping was removed, and there 
were successively discovered a band of stuff 
twenty centimetres in width rolled round the 
body, then a second winding-sheet sewn up 
and kept in place by narrow bands placed 
at some distance apart, then two thicknesses 
of small bandages, and then a piece of fine 
linen reaching from the head to the feet. A 
figure representing the Goddess Nut, one 
metre in length, is drawn upon this piece of 
linen, in red and white, as prescribed by the 
ritual. The profile of the goddess is un- 
mistakably designed after the pure and delicate profile of Seti 1., as he is known to 
us in the bas relief sculptures of Thebes and Abydos. Under this amulet there was 
found another bandage, then a layer of pieces of linen folded in squares and spotted with 
the bituminous matter used by the embalmers. This last covering removed, Rameses 
11. appeared. The head is long, and small in proportion to the body. The top of the 
skull is quite bare. On the temples there are a few sparse hairs, but at the poll the 
hair is quite thick, forming smooth, straight locks about five centimetres in length. 
White at the time of death, they have been dyed a light yellow by the spices used in 
embalmment. The forehead is low and narrow; the brow-ridge prominent; the eye- 
brows are thick and white ; the eyes are small and close together ; the nose is long, 
thin, hooked like the noses of the Bourbons, and slightly crushed at the tip by the pres- 
sure of the bandages; the temples are sunken; the cheekbones very prominent; the 
ears round, standing far out from the head, and pierced like those of a woman for the 

wearing of earrings ; the jawbone is massive and strong; the chin very prominent; 

155 




THE PROFILE OF RAMESES II. 

(From a photograph taken at Bulak.) 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

the mouth small but thick-lipped, and full of some kind of black paste. This paste 
being partly cut away with the scissors, disclosed some much worn and very brittle 
teeth, which, moreover, are white and well preserved. The moustache and beard are 
thin. They seem to have been kept shaven during life, but were probably allowed to 
grow during the king's last illness ; or they may have grown after death. The hairs 
are white, like those of the head and eyebrows, but are harsh and bristly, and from two 
to three millimetres in length. The skin is of earthy brown, splotched with black. 
Finally, it may be said the face of the mummy gives a fair idea of the face of the living 
king. The expression is unintellectual, perhaps slightly animal ; but even under the 
somewhat grotesque disguise of mummification, there is plainly to be seen an air of 
sovereign majesty, of resolve, and of pride. The rest of the body is as well preserved 
as the head ; but in consequence of the reduction of the tissues, its external aspect is 
less life-like. The neck is no thicker than the vertebral column. The chest is broad ; 
the shoulders are square ; the arms are crossed upon the breast ; the hands are small 
and dyed with henna; and the wound in the leftside through which the embalmers 
extracted the viscera, is large and open. The legs and thighs are fleshless ; the feet 
are long, slender, somewhat flat-soled, and dyed, like the hands, with henna. The 
corpse is that of an old man, but of a vigorous and robust old man. We know, 
indeed, that Rameses n. reigned for 67 years, and that he must have been nearly 100 
years old when he died. 

The unbandaging of the mummy of Rameses 11. took less than one quarter of an hour. 
After a short pause of a few moments, at precisely ten minutes before ten o'clock, the 
mummy numbered 5,229 was > m its turn, removed from its glass case. It was discovered 
in the great sarcophagus numbered 5,247, which also contained another mummy in a 
very dirty and tattered condition. As this sarcophagus bore the name of Nefert-ari, 
the wife of king Ahmes 1. of the XVIIIth Dynasty, it has been taken for granted that 
No. 5,229 was the mummy of this queen. The other mummy was supposed to be that 
of some unknown princess who had been laid beside Nefert-ari by the priests employed 
to conceal the royal mummies in the hiding-place at Deir-el-Bahari. Consigned to 
the Museum stores, the mummy decayed and gave out so foul an odor that it became 
necessary to get rid of it. It was accordingly opened, and proved to have been band- 
aged very carefully ; but the body was no sooner exposed to the outer air than it fell 
literally into a state of putrefaction, dissolving into black matter which gave out an 
insupportable smell. It was, however, ascertained to be the corpse of a woman of 
mature age and middle height, belonging to the white races of mankind. There were 
no traces of writing on the bandages, but a small strip of linen discovered in the 
sarcophagus No. 5,247 was decorated with a scene of adoration of King Rameses in., 
in the likeness of two forms of Amen. A short legend, written partly in cursive hiero- 
glyphs and partly in hieratic, states that the piece of linen thus decorated was the gift 
of the head laundress of the royal household, and it was accordingly supposed that the 
anonymous mummy was one of the many sisters, wives, or daughters of Rameses in. 

The mummy, No. 5,229, was very neatly wrapped in orange-colored linen, kept in 
place by small strips of ordinary linen. There was no outer inscription, but upon the 
head was a linen band covered with mystical figures. 

M. Maspero here reminded His Highness the Khedive that Nefert-ari is represented 

upon certain monuments as of a black complexion, while upon other monuments she is 
156 



RECENT DISCO VERIES IN EGYPT. 



seen with a yellow skin, and with the soft hair of an Egyptian woman. Hence there 
have arisen innumerable discussions among Egyptologists, some affirming that the 
queen was a negress, while others maintain that the black tint of her face and body was 
a fiction originating with the priests. The worship of this queen was extremely popu- 
lar at Thebes, where she was deified under one of the forms of Hathor, the black 
goddess, the goddess of death and of the shades. The opening of the mummy, No. 
5,229, would, therefore, probably settle this historical question for good and all. 

The orange-colored winding-sheet being removed, there appeared beneath it a white 
sheet bearing an inscription in four lines: — " The year XIII. , the second month of 
Shomou, the 28th day, the First Prophet of Amen, King of the Gods, Pinetem, son of 
the First Prophet of Amen, Piankhi, the Scribe of the temple Zoserou-Khonsu, and 
the scribe of the Necropolis Boutchamou, proceeded to restore the defunct King Ra- 
user-ma Mer-Amen, and to establish him 
for Eternity." 

The mummy, which had hitherto been 
taken for Nefert-ari, was then the mummy 
of Rameses in. ; and the anonymous mum- 
my was without doubt that of Nefert-ari. 

This point being verified, Rameses in. 
was placed erect and photographed in his 
bandages. Short as was the delay, it seemed 
too long for the impatient spectators. The 
strange revelation, which had substituted 
one of the great conquerors of Egyptian 
history for the most venerated queen of the 
XVIilth Dynasty, had astonished and ex- 
cited them to the uttermost. The unband- 
aging of the mummy then recommenced in 
the midst of general impatience. 

All had left their places and crowded 
round the operators. Three thicknesses of 
bandages were rapidly unwound, then came 
a casing of sewn canvas covered with a 
thin coat of cement. This casing being cut 
with the scissors, more layers of linen 
appeared. The mummy seemed to diminish and reveal its forms under our fingers. 
Some of the wrappings were inscribed with legends and groups in black ink, notably 
the God Amen enthroned, with a line of hieroglyphs below, stating that this bandage 
was made and offered by a devotee of the period, or, perhaps, by a princess of the 
blood royal: — " The Lady Songstress of Amen Ra, King of the Gods, Tai't-aat-Maut, 
daughter of the First Prophet of Amen, Piankhi, in order that the God Amen should 
accord her life, health, and streneth." 

Two pectoral ornaments were laid in the folds of the wrappers, one of gilt wood, 
bearing the usual group of Isis and Nepthys adoring the sun ; the other in pure gold, 
inscribed with the name of Rameses in. One last wrapper of stiffened canvas, one last 

winding-sheet of red linen, and then a great disappointment, keenly felt by the opera- 

157 




THE HEAD OF RAMESES II. 

(From a photograph taken at Bulak.) 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

tors; the face of" the king was coated with a compact mass of bitumen, which completely 
hid the features. At 20 minutes past 1 1 His Highness the Khedive left the hall of mummies. 
The work was resumed in the afternoon of the same day, and on Thursday morning, 
the 3rd of June, a fresh examination of the bandages revealed inscriptions upon two of 
them. The first is dated the year IX., the second the year X. of the High Priest Pinetem 
1. The tarry substance upon the face of the mummy being carefully attacked with the 
scissors was detached little by little, and the features became visible. They are less well 
preserved than those of Rameses 11., yet they can to a certain extent be identified with 
those of the portraits of the conqueror. The head and face are closely shaved, and show 
no trace of hair or beard. The forehead, without being lofty or very broad, is better pro- 
portioned and more intellectual than that of Rameses 11. The brow-ridge is less promi- 
nent, the cheekbones are less high, the nose is less hooked, the chin and jaw are less 
heavy. The eyes appear to be larger, but it is not possible to be certain of this last point, 
the eyelids having been removed, and the cavities of the eyeballs having been stuffed 

with rags. The ears are closer to the head than those of Rameses 
11., and they are pierced in like manner for the reception of ear- 
rings. The mouth is disproportionately wide, and the thin lips 
reveal a row of white and well-placed teeth. The first molar on 
the right side appears to have been broken, or to have been worn 
away earlier than the rest. In short, Rameses in. is like a smaller 
imitation of Rameses 11. The physiognomy is more delicate, and, 
above all, more intelligent ; but the height of the body is less, the 
shoulders are less wide, and the strength of the man was inferior. 
What he was himself in his individual person as compared with 
gold-faced inneb Rameses n., so was his reign as compared with the rtign of Ram- 
Mr; mm y case OF eses ii. His wars were not fought in Syria or Ethiopia, but at the 

QUEEN NEFEBT-ABI. mQuths Q f the Ni]e and Qn the f rontiers Q f Egypt. His buildings 

(From a photograph taken at m 

Buiak.) were of a poor style and of hasty construction. His piety was as 

pompous as that of Rameses 11. , but his resources were more 

meagre. His vanity was, however, as boundless ; and such was his supreme desire to 

copy in all things the example of his illustrious predecessor, that he gave to his sons 

the names of the sons of Rameses 11. , and almost in the same order of birth. 

The two mummies, replaced in their glass cases, will henceforth be exhibited with 
their faces uncovered, like the mummies of King Pinetem and the priest Nebsouni. 

As illustrating yet further the wonderful light this discovery throws upon Egyptian 
history, we give Maspero's account of the unrolling of the mummies of Sekenen-Ra-Ta- 
aken, a monarch of the XVI Ith Dynasty, who reigned nearly 1800 years B.C., 
and of Seti 1., the father of Rameses n. Seti holds a very prominent position in 
Egyptian history. He was a great and successful warrior, and he was the father of 
Rameses n. Sekenen-Ra is one of the heroes of early Egyptian history. He headed 
the popular movement against the mysterious Hyksos kings, which, after a struggle 
extending over i5o years, led to their expulsion from Egypt. He figures as 
one of the heroes of an ancient romance written upon a papyrus about the time of the 
Exodus, and of which the British Museum possesses a large fragment. Maspero's re- 
port of the unrolling of his body, which took place June 9th, 1886, is very interesting, 

as illustrative of the details of the battle in which he lost his life. 
158 




RECENT DISCO VERIES IN EGYPT. 

"The mummy, numbered 5,227, ^ rst removed from its glass case, was that of the 
King Sekenen-Ra Ta-aken (XVIIth Theban dynasty), as shown by the inscription, 
written in red ink and retouched with the brush, upon the cover of his mummy case. 
Two large winding-sheets of coarse texture, loosely fastened, covered the body from head 
to foot. Next came pieces of linen carelessly swathed, and pledgets of rags held in 
place by narrow bandages ; the whole of these wrappings being greasy to the touch and 
impregnated by a fetid odor. The outer coverings removed, there remained under our 
hands a kind of spindle of stuff measuring about one metre 82 centimetres in length, and 
so slender that it seemed impossible there should be space enough inside it for a human 
body. The two last thicknesses of linen being stuck together by spices and adhering 
closely to the skin, they had to be cut asunder with a knife, whereupon the entire body 
was exposed to view. The head was thrown back, and lying low to the left. A large 
wound running across the right temple a little above the frontal ridge was partly con- 
cealed by long and scanty locks of hair. The lips were wide open, and contracted into 
a circle, from which the front teeth, gums, and tongue protruded, the latter being held 
between the teeth and partly bitten through. The features, forcibly distorted, wore a 
very evident expression of acute suffering. A more minute examination revealed the 
position of two more wounds. One, apparently afflicted by a mace or a hatchet, had 
cloven the left cheek and broken the lower jaw, the side teeth being laid bare. The 
other, hidden by the hair, had laid open the top of the head a little above the wound 
over the left brow. A downward hatchet-stroke had here split off an enormous splinter 
of skull, leaving a long cleft, through which some portion of the brain must have escaped. 
The position and appearance of the wounds make it possible to realize with consider- 
able certainty all the circumstances of this last scene of the king's life. Struck first upon 
the jaw, Ta-aken fell to the ground. His foes then precipitated themselves upon him, 
and, by the infliction of two more wounds, despatched him where he lay, one being a 
hatchet-stroke on the top of the head and the other a lance or dagger wound just above 
the eye. We already know that Ta-aken fought against the Shepherds — i.e., the so- 
called Hyksos invaders — who ruled Egypt for about 5oo years, but till now we did not 
know that he died on the field. The Egyptians were evidently victorious in the struggle, 
which took place over the corpse of their leader, or they would not have succeeded in 
rescuing it and in carrying it off the field. Being then and there hastily embalmed, it 
was conveyed to Thebes, where it received the rites of sepulture. These facts explain, 
not only the startling aspect of the mummy, but the irregular fashion of its embalmment. 
The chest and ribs, unduly compressed by operators working against time, are broken, 
and present the appearance of a collection of blackened debris, interspersed with scat- 
tered vertebrae. The pelvis is intact, the bones of the arms and legs are all separate, 
and decomposition must have already set in before the embalmers began their work. 
A large white blotch which surrounds the wound on the brow appears to be neither more 
nor less than a mass of brain substance which has exuded and mortified. Thus hastily 
embalmed, the mummy was not proof against destructive influences from without. The 
wrappers are eaten through by worms, and shells of the larvae of maggots are found in 
the long hair. Ta-aken was about forty years of age at the time of his death. He was 
tall, slender, and, to judge by what remains of the muscles of the shoulder and thorax, 
he must have been a singularly powerful man. His head was small, long, barrel-shaped, 

and covered with fine black curly hair, worn in long locks. The eye was large and deep- 

159 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

set, the nose straight and broad at the bridge, the cheekbones were prominent, the jaw 
was massive, the mouth of middle size, somewhat projecting, and furnished with good 
sound teeth covered with fine enamel. The ears are gone, and there are scarcely any 
signs of beard or moustache. Ta-aken had been shaved on the very morning of the 
battle. Take him altogether, he must have been singularly like the Barabras (Nubians) 
of the present day, and have belonged to a race less mingled with foreign elements than 
that of the Rameses family. 

The mummy-case No. 5,232 contained the mummy ofSeti 1., second king of the XlXth 
dynasty, and father of Rameses 11. , as testified by the official entries of the year VI. and 
XVI. of Hrihor, and the year X. of Pinotmou 1,, inscribed upon the lid. The arrange- 
ment of the various winding-sheets and bandages was the same as upon the mummy of 
Rameses 11. At about midway of the total thickness of the wrappings there occurred two 
lines of hieratic inscription in black ink, stating that "in the year IX., the second month 
of Pert (the season of seed-time), the sixteenth day, was the day of re-clothing the King 
Men-mat-Ra (Seti 1.), to whom be life, health, and strength." Another inscription, written 
on one of the smaller bandages, adds that the linen used for the king's wrappings was 

supplied by the First Prophet of Amen Menkhopirri in his Vlth 
year ; so giving the date of the latest restoration of the king's fu- 
nerary trappings. The body presents much the same appearance 
as that of Rameses 11. It is long, fleshless, of a yellow-black color, 
and has the arms crossed upon the breast. The head was covered 
with a mask of fine linen, blackened with bitumen, which it was 
necessary to remove with the scissors. M. Alexandre Barsanti, 
upon whom that delicate operation devolved, removed this shape- 
less mass, and brought to view the most beautiful mummy-head 
the head op seti I. ever seen within the walls of the Museum. The sculptors of 

(From a photozrafh taken at Thebes and Abvdos did not flatter the Pharaoh when they gave 
Bulak.) } , ....... 

him that delicate, sweet, and smiling profile which is the admi- 
ration of travellers. After a lapse of thirty-two centuries, the mummy retains the same 
expression which characterized the features of the living man. Most striking of all, 
when compared with the mummy of Rameses 11. , is the astonishing resemblance 
between the father and son. The nose, mouth, chin — in short, all the features — are the 
same ; but in the father they are more refined, more intelligent, more spiritual than when 
reproduced in the son. Seti I. is, as it were, the idealized type of Rameses 11. He must 
have died at an advanced age. The head is shaven, the eyebrows are white, the condi- 
tion of the body points to considerably more than three-score years of life, thus confirm- 
ing the opinion of the learned, who have attributed a long reign to this king. The 
body is healthy and vigorous, notwithstanding the knotty state of the fingers, which bear 
evident traces of gout. The mouth is filled with some kind of paste, but the two teeth 
which are visible are white and well preserved." 

In addition to engravings of Seti and Rameses we give one of Pinetem 11 ., whose 
mummy was also found at Deir-el-Bahari. It is interesting from the fact that this king 
belonged to the XXIst dynasty, which flourished some three hundred years after the 
XlXth and that the features shown the Nubian type. 

As the orio-inal tombs of many of these great kings have long been known, and also 

known to be empty, the reason has been sought why the mummies of these great rulers, 
160 




RECENT DISCOVERIES IN EGYPT. 




THE HEAD OF PINETEM II. 

(From a photograph taken at Bulak.) 



belonging to several widely-separated epochs — Sekenen-Ra being as far distant from 
Pinetem n. as William the Conqueror from Wil- 
liam in. — were all brought together into the secret 
place at Deir-el-Bahari, and when they were put 
there. Inscriptions upon the mummies show that 
from time to time properly appointed officials vis- 
ited the royal mummies, and reported upon their 
condition. The kings and queens found, down 
to, and including Rameses in., seem to have 
been originally buried in their own royal tombs. 
The tomb in which they were found appears to 
have been the family vault of the Her-Hor dy- 
nasty. Towards the close of the XXth dynasty 
Egypt fell into a state of considerable social dis- 
order and insecurity. One of the many forms in 
which crime flourished was the robbing of tombs. 
From time to time the mummies of the ancient 
kings were placed in tombs less easy of access 
than their own, and thus more secure against the 
assaults of robbers, and at last — when, no one can 
say — found a permanent refuge in the tomb which, contrary to ancient Egyptian custom, 

the Her-Hor family made the sepulchre, not 
only of the monarch who hewed it out, but 
also of his descendants. 

In 1882 a few scholars interested in the study 
of Egyptian antiquities formed a society, based 
upon the model of that which has done so much 
for Palestine, and called it the Egypt Explora- 
tion Fund. The object for which subscriptions 
are sought is the excavation of promising sites 
in Egypt, and the publication of the results of 
the work done. The society has kept itself well 
before the public since its foundation, and some 
of its discoveries have formed the theme of con- 
siderable discussion. It has been subjected to 
the criticism of being somewhat hasty in jump- 
ing to conclusions, and that its memoirs not un- 
frequently contain statements, identifications and 
translations that sometimes do not very success- 
fully stand the test of severe examination. But 
any society doing such .good work as the ex- 
cavation of Egyptian site deserves support. To 
get the excavation done is most important, 
the treasures discovered have to be modified 






I 




ENTRANCE TO THE TOMB OF SETI I. IN THE VAL- 
LEY OF THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS AT THEBES. 



even if the 
later on. 



first impressions about 



The chief results of the work done by the officers of the Fund at Tel-el-Maskhutah 

161 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



and Tanis have already been referred to upon pages 2 5 and 26 of this volume. Dur- 
ing i885 and 1886 Mr. Flinders Petrie has discovered and explored the sites of 
Naukratis, and at Tel Defenneh, about sixteen miles from Tanis, of Pharaoh's House in 
lahpanhes. The Fund have issued a Memoir on the former, which is a most interest- 1 
ing discovery. The latter will come home more closely to all students of the Bible, inas- 
much as it reveals to us the site of an un- 
usual and important conjunction of events 
in the history of Egypt, Palestine, and Baby- 
lonia. Granting that Mr. Petrie is correct in 
identifying ruins of a massive quadrangular 
building at Tel Defenneh, the Pelusiac 
Daphnae ot the Greek writers, with the palace 
of Pharaoh at Tahpanhes, we have recov- 
ered the place whither the daughters of Zed- 
ekiah fled, whither Jeremiah himself came, 
whither also came Nebuchadnezzar, by whom, 
in all probability, the place was destroyed. 
This discovery throws considerable light 
upon the historical events described in 
Jeremiah xxxvii.— xlvii. 

M= Naville has also investigated the ruins 
and cemeteries at Tel-el- Yahudeyeh, twen- 
ty-two miles north-east of Cairo, and inclines 
to the belief that it was the site of the city 
of Onia, founded by the Jewish High Priest 
Onias, abou" 163 b.c. 

The combined results of excavations car- 
ried on in Egypt, the more accurate transla- 
tion of documents and monuments, and the 
careful investigation of the history and 
literature of Egypt, are now enabling us to 
form much clearer and much more accurate 
ideas about the people themselves, their 
wonderful story, their complex religious 
system, their social customs, and the part 
they have played in the development of man- 
kind. The more fully we can get to understand the history and beliefs of the Egyptians 
the more clearly shall we be able to discern their influence upon the still more marvel- 
ous history of that people, among whom in the fulness of time came He "who His own 
self bore our sins in His body on the tree," and who died that he might "gather 
together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad." 




HEAD OF QUEEN NEFERT-ARI, WIFE OF RAMESES II. 

(From a sculpture at Abu Sirnbel.) 



l62 




SECTION V. 



The Suez Canal. 



THE separation of the African Continent from that of Asia, and the formation of a di- 
rect waterway between the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans by cutting the Isthmus 
of Suez, has been often and justly spoken of as one of the ::iost daring achievements of 
the present century. With less justice is it adduced to prove our immense superiority 
over ancient engineers in works of great public utility. The canalization of the isthmus 
is no modern project. It had been commenced whilst the Israelites were yet in Egypt, 
and probably formed part of their labors at the period of the Exodus. It was carried 
forward almost to completion by Pharaoh Necho, who defeated King Josiah in the great 
battle of Megiddo. 1 And a hundred years later it was finished by the Persian conquer- 
ors of Egypt. 

It would, however, be an error to suppose that M. Lesseps and his associates simply 
inherited the ideas of the Pharaohs. The Suez Canal was designed solely to facilitate 
communication between the Eastern and Che Western Continents. For this purpose all 
that was needed was the construction of ci channel wide and deep enough for ocean- 
going steamers, through the narrow neck of land which divides the Mediterranean from 
the Red Sea, thus avoiding the long detour by the Cape of Good Hope. But the ancient 
Egyptians were not a maritime people. To navigate the Nile was enough for them. 
A mere ship canal was worthless to a nation which had no foreign commerce, and it 

1 2 Chronicles xxxv. 20 — 24. 

165 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

might indeed be used for the invasion of their territory by a seafaring enemy. Their 
canal had to serve, therefore, other purposes than those contemplated by M. Lesseps. 

We have already seen that the north-eastern frontier of ancient Egypt was the one 
most exposed to assault. Once in their history, hordes of nomads poured across the 
isthmus and established themselves as rulers of the land. By the same route came 
Idumaean and Canaanitish merchants to exchange their commodities for those of the Nile 
Valley. The monuments afford innumerable illustrations of this, and the histories of 
Joseph and his brethern show the nature and extent of the traffic thus carried on. It 
was therefore important that a line of fortified posts should be constructed to guard this 
frontier against invasion, and at the same time to protect the caravans from the attacks 
of marauding Bedouin. But food and water were needful for the laborers employed in 
the work of construction, for the garrisons who held these outposts, and for the traders 
who met there to transact their business. These supplies could not be found in the 




LINE OF ANCIENT CANAL IN THE DESERT. 

desert. A canal, therefore, was excavated at least as early as the time of Rameses the 
Great, to convey the waters of the Nile to these points. The sand of the desert, which 
looks so hopelessly barren, only needs water to make it "rejoice and blossom as the 
rose." But sea water, of course, will not serve the purpose. It would only increase, if 
that were possible, the sterility which already existed. It must be fresh water. This 
being conducted by canals from the Nile, and running through the eastern wilderness, 
added a new province to Egypt, and turned the arid waste into a fertile garden. The 
great Bahr Yusef, as it is now called, which runs the whole length of Egypt from Cairo 
to Farshut, offered a barrier to the inroads of Bedouin horsemen, or, if they made their 
way across it, they were in danger of being cut to pieces before they could effect a re- 
treat. What had proved so serviceable as a defensive work along the Libyan frontier 
would be even more important on the north-east, from which more serious danger was 
apprehended. The canalization of the isthmus by the ancient Egvptians was mainly de- 

166 



THE SUEZ CANAL. 

signed to attain these three ends — to reclaim and fertilize a portion of the desert, to 
facilitate the construction and maintenance of fortresses on the exposed frontier, and to 
form a foss as a protection against Bedouin forays. The opening up of a waterway for 
sea-going vessels was a subordinate purpose, which only took effect at a comparatively 
recent period in the history. These facts being borne in mind, we shall be able the 
more easily to understand what follows. 

We read that the Israelites "built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses." 
These were two of the fortresses to which reference has just been made. The former 
of them is mentioned by Herodotus. The probable ruins of the latter were discovered 
in 1883 with the statue and cartouche of the great monarch who founded it. The site 
is covered deeply with desert sand ; but traces of an ancient canal are distinctly visible, 
which we may fairly conjecture to have been excavated by the labor of the Hebrew 
slaves who built Raamses and Pithom for the king. Greek and Roman writers ascribe 




ZAGAZIG, ON THE FRESH-WATER CANAL. 



the construction of this canal to Rameses the Great, known to them at Sesostris. 
This, it will be observed, affords an incidental corroboration to the statement of 
Scripture ; for the city and the canal were doubtless the work of the same monarch who 
gave his name to the outpost upon which the Hebrews were at work at the time of the 
Exodus. Though the term "treasure city" conveys a false impression to our minds, 
it is not therefore inaccurate. It was not a place in which the royal treasure was 
deposited, but a fortified khan, where merchants could store their goods and transact 
their business in safety. 

The canal thus commenced, prior to the Exodus, was still further extended by Pharaoh 
Necho, in the fifth or sixth century before the Christian era. He is the only Egyptian 
monarch whose name appears in connection with maritime enterprise. In his zeal for 
the promotion of navigation, he projected the formation of a ship canal connecting the 

Nile with the Red Sea. Herodotus tells us that one hundred and fourteen miles of 

167 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



this great work had been completed when he was warned by the oracle to desist. This 
admeasurement is evidently an excessive one. It probably includes the whole distance 
from sea to sea, without making allowance for the branch of the Nile north of Bubastis, 
where the canal commenced, or the Bitter Lakes, which lay in its course. The state- 
ment of Pliny is probably nearer the truth. He gives it as fifty-seven Roman, equal to 
sixty-two English, miles. The oracle called upon the king to suspend his operations, 
on the ground that he was " working for the barbarians." This reason has been 
rejected as absurd by recent historians. But it really was a piece of shrewd advice. 

The canal, if completed as proposed, would have 
afforded facilities for the invasion of Egypt by the 
war-galleys of the Persians, with which the Egyp- 
tians could not cope. 

About a hundred years later, when the Per- 
sian conquerors had succeeded for a time to 
the throne of the Pharaohs, Darius, the son of 
Hystaspes, resumed the work commenced so long 
before. He cleared out the canal, which had be- 
gun to silt up, and carried it forward to where Suez 
now stands. When the Persian and Egyptian 
empires had succumbed to the military prowess of 
the Macedonian conqueror, and the power of the 
Greek dynasty had been consolidated in Egypt, 
Ptolemy Philadelphus (b.c. 25o) widened and 
deepened the waterway, reconstructed the por- 
tion at the southern end and completed the un- 
dertaking upon so grand a scale that vessels of 
war could enter the Nile from the Mediterranean, 
and sail into the Gulf of Suez without difficulty. 
Under the Romans, as might be expected from 
the character of the people, the repairs and exten- 
sions necessary from time to time were carried 
out, so as to maintain this important line of com- 
munication unbroken. In the anarchy and con- 
fusion which followed upon the downfall of the 
Roman empire, all the public works were allowed 
to fall into dilapidation. The canals were choked 
up, and remained unnavigable till the Arab con- 
quest of Egypt. Under the vigorous administra- 
tion of Amrou they were reopened. Corn and other provisions were conveyed along 
them for the use of Mecca, Medina, and other Arabian towns. Th : s continued, with 
some interruptions, for about three hundred and fifty years. Since that time they have 
been altogether neglected, though their course can yet be traced through the desert, 
and they have been to some extent utilized for the construction ol the ship canal. 

From this brief summary it will be seen that the canalization of the isthmus is no 
new project. It was commenced more than three thousand years ago, and two thousand 
years have elapsed since it was completed from sea to sea. During the French occupa- 

168 




MAP OF THE CANAL. 



THE SUEZ CANAL. 

tion of Egypt, at the commencement of the present century, the project of reopening 
this ancient channel of communication suggested itself to the mind of Napoleon. Surveys 
were made, and plans prepared by his orders. But the ambitious schemes of the 
Emperor having been baffled by the battle of the Nile, nothing further was done, and 
the proposal remained in abeyance. 

The various engineers \vho had turned their attention to the subject prior to M. 
Lesseps proposed to adopt, with some modifications, the plan followed by the ancient 
Egyptians, and construct a fresh-water canal by tapping the Nile somewhere in the Delta. 
Many high authorities are of opinion that he erred by deciding upon a different course. 

Mr. Barham Zincke thus sums up the argument in favor of the scheme which was re- 
jected : " The ancient Egyptians would have decided in favor of fresh water, because 
they could then have constructed it at half the cost ; and would, furthermore, by so do- 




PORT SAID. 

ing, have had a supply of water in the desert, sufficient for reclaiming a vast extent of 
land, which would have more than repaid the whole cost of construction. Instead of 
cutting a canal deep in the desert at an enormous cost, they would, as it were, have laid 
a canal on the desert. This they would have done by excavating only to the depth re- 
quisite for finding material for its levees and for the flow of the water which was to be 
brought to it from some selected point in the river. It is evident that this kind of canal 
might have been made wider and deeper than the present one at far less cost. The 
river water would then have filled the ship canal, just as it now does the sweet-water 
canal parallel to it. The sweet-water canal now reaches Suez. A sweet-water ship 
canal might have done the same. As far as navigation is concerned, the only difference 
would have been that locks would have been required at the two extremities, such as 

Darius and Ptolemy had at Arsinoe. These locks would have been at Suez, and the 

169 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

southern side of Lake Menzaleh. But the diminution in the cost of construction, say 
$40,000,000, instead of $80,000,000, would not have been the chief gain : that would 
have been found in the fact that the canal would have been a new Nile in a new desert- 
It would have contained an inexhaustible storage of water to fertilize, and to cover with 
life and wealth, a new Egypt." 1 

The fresh-water canal, the construction of which was an essential preliminary to com- 
mencing the main work, leaves the Nile near Cairo, and pursues a north-easterly course 
till it reaches the site of Pithom, where, as we have seen, the Hebrews were laboring at 
the period of the Exodus. It thence runs due east to Ismailia, the central station on the 




CARAVAN STARTING FROM SUEZ. 



ship canal, and is continued southward to Suez. Pumping-engines at Ismailia force the 
water along iron pipes northward to Port Said, a distance of about fifty miles. Reser- 
voirs are constructed at all the principal stations along this part of the canal for the 
supply of the inhabitants, and open drinking-troughs are placed at distances of about three 
miles from each other along the line, which are kept constantly full, by means of an 
ordinary ball and cock, like those in use in our English cisterns. 

The ship canal is as nearly as possible one hundred miles in length, running due north 
and south from Port Said to Suez. It was not found necessary, however, to excavate 
the channel for the whole distance. A glance at the map will show that it runs through 
four great takes : Menzaleh, Ballah, Timsah, and the Bitter .Lakes. The first two of 

1 Egypt of the Pharaohs and the Khedive, p. 420. 
170 



THE SUEZ CANAL. 

these, with only a few short cuttings, extend for 41 miles, the second for 5, the third for 
25, making together about 60 miles, and leaving 40 miles of earth-work to be excavated. 
Lake Menzaleh was so near the Mediterranean as to be always under water. The others 
were deep depressions in the soil, marking the spots where lakes of sea water were left 
when geological changes raised this part of the isthmus above the level of the Gulf of 
Suez. It was only necessary, therefore, to admit water into them, to bank the channel, 
and to make it of the required depth by dredging. 

At Suez, the works of the canal consist chiefly of an entrance channel into the Red 
Sea, increasing gradually from 72 feet in width at the bottom, to 980 feet of a basin or 
dock, and a considerable quantity of reclaimed land. But at Port Said the works are 
on a much more important scale. The water was so shallow that within a mile and a 
half of the shore there was not sufficient depth to float the vessels which would pass 
through the canal. Hence it has been necessary to construct two walls or breakwaters ; 
one, of the enormous length of 2730 yards, and a shorter one 2070 yards long. These 
breakwaters are not built in the solid fashion of those at Plymouth and Cherbourg, but 
are composed of blocks of concrete which have been manufactured at Port Said out of 
lime brought from Europe and sand obtained on the spot. These blocks — which 
weigh about twenty tons apiece, and 2 5, 000, of which have been required — have been 
tumbled down roughly one upon another and allowed to settle by their own weight. 
Between these two rude walls a passage of depth sufficent for large ships has been 
dredged, but the alluvium brought down through the adjacent mouths of the Nile, 
which formerly was deposited without hindrance over the whole of the surrounding 
coast, is now stopped by the most westerly of the breakwaters, and has not only formed 
large accumulations of solid shore on its outside, but has forced its way through the 
interstices of the blocks into the passage intended for ships. 

The accumulation of mud at the mouth, and of drifting sand along the course of 
the canal, involves the necessity of constant dredging. The expense which has thus 
to be incurred, together with the enormous amount of capital sunk in the construction of 
this great work — about seventeen millions sterling — have hitherto prevented its being 
a great financial success. But the continuous increase in the number and tonnage of 
the vessels which pass along it, make it probable that ultimately it will be as remunera- 
tive to the shareholders as beneficial to the world at large. 

There is little to interest the traveller in a voyage through the canal. From the deck 
of one of the large ocean steamers, an extensive view is gained over the expanse of 
desert on either hand. But passing through it as I did, in one of the Viceroy's steam 
launches, nothing is seen but a long monotonous line of sand-banks, which slope 
upwards from the water's edge and obstruct the view. Where the canal passes through 
the Bitter Lakes and Lake Timsah, the eye can range over the lagoons, but they offer 
nothing to attract attention except flocks of birds — pelicans, flamingoes herons, cranes, 
and ducks apparently in infinite numbers. After a sojourn in Egypt, even these have 
become so familiar as no longer to excite interest. It was at first thought that sharks 
and fishes from the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean would pass along the canal into the 
Mediterranean. They are, however, kept back by an unforeseen cause. The evapo- 
ration in the broad open lagoons is so great that the water in them becomes nearly as 
salt as that in the Dead Sea. Fish which are only accustomed to water whose density 

and saltness is that of the ocean, find this an insuperable barrier to their farther progress, 

171 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

and the shores were at first lined with their dead bodies. It is said that a few varieties 
are becoming familiarized to their new habitat, and are thriving in it. But none of the 
larger and more important species have, as yet, made their way through the intensely 
salt waters of the Bitter Lakes. 

Ismailia, the central station on the canal, is admirably adapted for a sanatorium, and 
was designed for this by the engineers of the company. It combines the pure, dry, 
exhilarating air of the desert with splendid sea-bathing, and irrigation from the fresh- 
water canal produces the most luxuriant vegetation in the gardens and pleasure-grounds 
around it. The town was laid out upon a pretentious scale. Here are boulevards, open 
squares, promenades, the Grande Rue de I'Empereur, the Boulevard de V Imperatrice, 
and all the high-sounding titles of a French city. M. Lesseps has a charming residence, 
and the Viceroy a palace, in the suburbs. But the scheme is a failure. The houses are 




KANTARAH, NEAR THE JUNCTION OF THE CANAL AND LAKE MENZALEH. 

empty and falling into ruins. The hotel is without guests. Visitors do not arrive, and 
vessels sail past without stopping. But its advantages as a health resort are so great 
that it may even yet realize the hopes of its founders. 

The only point of historical interest on the canal is Kantarah. Lying just at the 
southern end of Lake Menzaleh, it marks the route by which travellers have always 
passed to and fro between Egypt and Palestine. Millions of warriors have trodden 
these sands age after age, from the time when Rameses crossed the isthmus for the 
imvasion of Assyria and Scythia, to that of Omar, when the Moslem conquerors, emerg- 
ing from their Arabian deserts, wrested their richest province from the enfeebled hands 
of the Byzantine Emperors, or of Napoleon, whose troops, parched with thirst, broke 
their ranks to pursue the mirage of the desert. The father of the faithful and his 
descendants came hither on their way to Egypt, when the famine was sore in the land 

of Canaan. The Midianites merchantmen, coming from Gilead " with their camels bear- 

172 



THE SUEZ CANAL. 

ing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt," 1 bore past this spot 
their young Hebrew prisoner to sell him into slavery. But no army, however laden 
with the spoils of victorous war ; no caravan, however enriched with the accumulation of 
successful commerce, can so fire our imagination or fix our thoughts as the two poor 
fugitives, who, weary and footsore, fled across this dreary waste, escaping with " the young 
Child" from the wrath of Herod the king. 2 The glory of God, the salvation of man, 
the sole hope of a ruined world, had been committed to their charge. He who was 
carried in His mother's arms or walked with infant feet over this oft-trodden track, had 
stooped to mortal weakness that we might rise to a glory which shall never pass away. 

1 Genesis xxxvii. 25. 2 Matthew ii. 13-21. 



m 



CROSSING THE DESEET, 



SECTION VI. 

Egypt to Sinai. 

'"PHE traveler in Egypt or Palestine finds himself everywhere surrounded by the 
* traces of a long and diversified series of events of the utmost interest and impor- 
tance. Commencing with the very dawn of history, they continued to run their course, 
not merely for centuries, but for millenniums, and have been recorded on imperishable 
monuments, or in yet more imperishable writings. The ever varying aspects of nature 
in those countries serve to illustrate and explain the great drama of their history. We 
can see how the course of human affairs was modified or determined by the conditions 
of physical geography. The sea, the rivers, the mountains, the desert, all had their 
influence upon the development of the Hebrew and the Egyptian people, and were 
employed for the accomplishment of His purposes, by Him who " hath made of one 
blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined 
the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation." 1 

Lying between these two countries — between them, not only geographically but 
historically — is a district which is in striking contrast to both. The Sinaitic peninsula 
was the route by which the Israelites passed from Egypt into Palestine, and it formed 
the birthplace and cradle of the nation. They entered it a horde of fugitive slaves. 
They left it fused and welded into an organic whole, which continues down to our own 
day. And it is this solitary fact which gives to it its sole claim on our attention. A 
solemn and impressive monotony is the characteristic of the region. History records 
but a single event. Nature offers but a single aspect unchanged from age to age. At 
certain seasons of the year" a thin and transparent veil of greyish green" is drawn 

1 Acts xvii. 26. 
174 




jz; 

o 
o 

H 

e 

Sz; 

o 

w 



s 

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w 

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o 



Oh 



EGYPT TO SINAI. 



over portions of the soil. Here and there a clump of palms, tamarisks, and acacias may 
be found. A few wells of bitter, brackish water attract the wandering Bedouin with 
their flocks and herds. We shall, hereafter, see reasons for believing that at the period 




THE SINAITIC PENINSULA. 



of the Exodus the population of the peninsula was more numerous, and its soil somewhat 

more fertile, than now. But with these exceptions it is "a waste howling wilderness" 

of bare rocks, intersected by wadies of sterile sand, gravel, and marl, without history and 

without change. 

177 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



\ 4 



m jlf* 



w 



WS&l 






In attempting to trace the route of the 
children of Israel from Egypt to Sinai, 
we are beset by difficulties which almost 
preclude the possibility of a definite or 
satisfactory conclusion. 

We have already seen that the boun- 
dary line between Egypt and the desert 
is uncertain and fluctuating, dependent 
not on fixed and natural, but on varying 
and artificial, conditions. It is deter- 
mined by the energy with which irriga- 
tion is carried out. The conflict between 
the fertilizing river and the encroach- 



1 



IW 






■■'','■ 



c ^ 



HE 



si 



^ 



MOUNT SEEBAL. 



178 



EGYPT TO SINAI. 

ing sand — between Osiris and Typhon, as the old mythology symbolized it, — is con- 
ducted with ever varying alternations of victory and defeat. Under the Pharaohs and 
the Ptolemies, canals had pushed the frontier of Egypt forward into districts which are 
now utterly desolate and barren. Recent discoveries enable us to fix, with tolerable cer- 
tainty, the site of Raamses, which formed the starting-point of the Exodus. But at the 
present day Raamses lies outside the limits of cultivation, and is buried beneath the sands 
of the desert. W here was Succoth — the shepherds booths — which formed the first halting- 
place? And where was " Etham, which is in the edge of the wilderness ? M1 In the 
changed condition of the country we can discover no premisses to warrant a positive 
conclusion as to these important sites. The question is still further complicated by 
geological changes in the isthmus. The Red Sea formerly extended much farther to the 
the north than at present. An upheaval of the soil has cut off the district now known 



\\~-, Ay i A 

^wt&J}0A %w "him <& 




WELLS OF MOSES. 



as the Bitter Lakes from the head of the Gulf of Suez. And there is some evidence to 
prove that this upheaval has taken place at a period subsequent to the Exodus. It is 
then possible, perhaps even probable, that Pi-hahiroth, Migdol, and Baal-zephon must 
be sought for, not where the present coast line of the Red Sea would indicate, but many 
miles to the north of where the town of Suez now stands. After a careful balancing 
of the arguments adduced by Egyptologists and Biblical expositors, I come to the 
conclusion that this is the case. Without presuming to dogmatize upon so difficult and 
complicated a problem, the theory which places the line of transit through the sea 
somewhere near Shaloof, a station on the canal, about fifteen miles north of Suez, seems 

1 Exodus xii. 37 ; xiii. 20. Numbers xxxiii. 5-7. 

179 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

to me to have the greatest weight of evidence in its favor. 1 We thus adopt the cogent 
arguments of Brugsch and others as to the line of route, and escape the difficulty of 
supposing, with them, that the passage was through the Serbonian Bog, or the Bitter 
Lakes, instead of through the sea, as the narrative evidently requires. 

A yet further difficulty in the way of tracing the course pursued by the fugitives 
arises from the character of the only historical document we possess on the subject. The 
Mosaic narrative is one of remarkable precision and accuracy. It is in fact an itinerary 
giving the journeys day by day, and the halting-places night by night. 2 But, as Dean 
Stanley has remarked, it was written by and for those who were so well acquainted 
with the localities that they required no explanatory details. The names being familiar 




WADY GHARANDEL. 



and the places known, no further indication was thought needful. This, whilst it affords 
a strong incidental corroboration of the authenticity of the narrative, deprives us of 
those helps to identify the stations on the route which might otherwise have been 
afforded. The names having disappeared, or being only handed down by doubtful and 

1 Professor Hull, the head of the geological expedition sent out to this legion by the Palestine Exploration Fund in 1 883, confirms 
this view. He says (Mount Seir, page 37) : " The waters of the Red and, I may add, the Mediterranean Sea, extended over the 
lands of Egypt and along the shore of the Gulf of Suez to a height of over two hundred feet above the present level of these water?, 
at a time when the existing species of shells were already living. The process of elevation of this sea-bed over so large a tract was 
probably exceedingly gradual, and at the date of the Exodus the elevation may not have taken place up to the present extent. A 
strip of Red Sea water — not very deep — may at this time have stretched from the Gulf of Suez as far north as the Great Bitter Lake, 
forming to the host of Israel an effective barrier to their progress into the desert. The passage may have taken place to the north 
of the present head of the Gulf of Suez." 

See also the chapter, The Geography of the Exodus, in Sir William Dawson's Egypt and Syria, By -Paths of Bible Knowledge 
No.VL * Numbers xxxiii. 5-37. 

180 




$ 



O 

a. 



EGYPT TO SINAI. 

obscure traditions, we are left to work out a conjectural line of march from insufficient 
data. 

But whatever preplexities we may feel in the endeavor to trace the precise course 
followed by the Israelites, the general outlines of the scenery remain unchanged, and 
we can realize with the utmost vividness and certainty the general aspect of the coun- 
try through which they passed. The Sinaitic peninsula is divided into two main 
portions. The northern, known as the Badiet et Tih, or Desert of the Wandering, is a 
vast triangular plateau of limestone, which runs down to a point in the centre of the 
peninsula. It has no marked features and no historical associations. Notwithstanding 
its name, we have no evidence that the Israelities actually crossed it, though in the 




RUINS AT SEEABET EL KHADIM. 



course of their forty years' wanderings they may have done so. On their journey 
southward from Egypt to Sinai, they kept along its western edge between the Jebel et 
Tih and the Gulf of Suez, and on their northward journey from Sinai to Canaan they 
skirted its southeastern corner. Separated from this northern plateau by a belt of 
sand, the Debet er Ramleh, and stretching away in the south, is a chaos of mountain 
peaks — sandstone and granite — some of which rise to a height of nearly 9000 feet. In 
winter the higher summits are capped with snow. With this exception, they are for the 
most part absolutely bare. The splintered savage tors, denuded of soil, have been 
compared to a sea running mountains high and suddenly petrified into solid immov- 
able masses. Tempests of frightful violence often rage among them. Lightning leaps 

183 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

from crag to crag. Peals of thunder seem to shake the earth. Torrents of rain descend, 
and, forming cascades, sweep all before them with destructive fury. The wadies or 
valleys which intersect these mountain ranges are covered with marl or gravel, gener- 
ally strewn with granite boulders. Clumps of broom, acacia, willow, tamarisk and 
wild palm, with here and there a cypress, are found springing from the arid soil. Sage 
and other aromatic shrubs afford a meagre pasture for the camels, flocks, and herds of 
the Bedouin. Wells or pools of brackish water are not infrequent. And there are a 
few oases where the date-palm grows luxuriantly along the banks of some running 
stream which wells forth from a cleft in the rocks, but is soon absorbed by the thirsty 
earth. This sparse and meagre vegetation, however, is not sufficient to dissipate the 
general aspect of barrenness and desolation which the wilderness presents. 




SINAITIC INSCEIPTIONS. 

Following in the track of the Israelites, we leave Suez, and in about three hours reach 
the Ayiin Musa, or wells of Moses. These wells are of all shapes and sizes. Some are 
merely shallow pools, others are deep shafts lined with masonry. In most of them the 
water is bitter and acrid ; in a few only is it drinkable. Aquatic plants cover the surface 
of the ponds, and the surrounding soil is laid out in gardens which are irrigated by 
sakiehs like those used in Egypt. If we adopt the theory that the passage of the Israel- 
ites through the Red Sea was at a point to the north of the present head of the Gulf, 
Ayun Musa may with some probability be identified as Marah, " where they could not 
drink of the waters, for they were bitter." 1 

The route southward from Ayun Musa leads along the shore over gravelly plains 
many miles broad, which slope upward from the sea to the mountains of the Tih. 
After heavy rains the stiff tenacious marl is pitted with numerous pools of water, and is 
sprinkled with the aromatic shrubs which constitute the flora of the desert. But the 
scorching sun soon dries up the pools, and the short-lived plants wither into dust. 
Several wells of bitter water are passed, each of which has been fixed upon as Marah, 

i Exodus xv. 23. 
1S4 



EGYPT TO SINAI. 



according to the view taken of the place of passage. About fifty miles south of Ayun 
Musa the Wady Gharandel is reached. 1 The entrance into the valley, or wady, is not 
much over eighty feet wide, and on either side grey-looking cliffs of gritstone rise with 
ragged faces to a considerable height. But that which adds so great a charm to the scene 
is an actual stream of water, rippling along, silvery and bright, garnished on each bank 
with luxuriant plants that thrive and flourish in the wet sand. Forget-me-nots peep out from 
amidst the sedgy grass reeds and mint that tower above the water ; while some kind of 
brook plant, like a tangled mat, spreads itself over the sandy edges of the rivulet, and 
sends its long arms, tufted with rootlets at 
every joint, out into the running water. 
Here the vegetation takes quite a differ- 
ent character. The spiny acacia, the sumt 
of the Arabs, probably the tree of the 
i( burning bush " and the shittim wood of 
the tabernacle, grows plentifully ; but, 
spiny though it be, it has to bear its bur- 
den of climbing plants, being generally 
quite hidden beneath their twisting, rope- 
like branches. Conspicous amongst the 
larger plants is the retem or wild broom, 
handsome alike in growth and foliage. It 
is probably the shrub beneath which Elijah 
slept in his wanderings. 2 

Date-palms of strangely stunted stature 
are scattered along the sandy banks ; one 
readily might mistake them for giant yuccas 
at a hasty glance, so much do they resemble 
those plants in their mode of growth. These 
may truly be called wild palms : dwarfed, and 
unaltered by man's hand. Was this the 
memorable place where "there were twelve 
wells of water and threescore and ten palm 
trees " — the veritable Elim of the Exodus ? 
Many travelers believe this wady to be the 
place. 3 

Striking eastward up the wady we soon 
reach the traces of mines worked by the 

ancient Egyptians. Hieroglyphic tablets are found in considerable numbers, one of 
which contains the name of Cheops, the builder of the Great Pyramid, and some are said 
to be even earlier. At Serabet el Khadim, which seems to have been the capital of the 
mining district, are some remarkable ruins, consisting of a temple, the remains of houses, 
and perhaps a necropolis. Fragments of columns, blocks of stone, pieces of rude sculp- 
ture, and mounds of broken pottery lie scattered about in perplexing confusion. The 

i It was in a valley running down from the Tih, not far from Ayun Musa, that Professor Palmer and Lieutenant Gill were murdered 
lay the Arabs in 1S82. Many are of opinion that the deed was due to orders issued by Arabi Pasha. 

* I Kings xix. 4. l Exodus xv. 27. 

135 




■fel 



illilL, 
Til 




Wmsm 



ism** 







m/m 



SINAITIC INSCRIPTIONS. 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS 



upright blocks or stelas are amongst the most curious parts of the present ruin. They 
are from eight to ten feet in height, rounded at the top, and fairly well faced. The rock 
from which they are hewn is a compact sandstone, and they do not appear to be dis- 
tributed with any regard to uniformity of distances or position. Thickly covering both 
sides are hieroglyphic inscriptions. This is but one of the many traces of ancient settle- 
ments to be found in this part of the peninsula, which seem clearly to prove that it must 
have been more thickly populated, and therefore more fertile, in former ages than at pres- 
ent. It is important to bear this fact in mind, as it confutes one of the main arguments 
brought by infidels against the truth of the Mosaic narrative. ■ Where, it has been asked, 
could pasture have been found for the " flocks, and herds, and very much cattle" brought 
up by the Israelites out of Egypt, and which served for sacrifices in the wilderness ? 1 
Whence came the Amalekites and other nations who fought against Israel, and threat- 
ened to destroy them? 2 These sceptical questions, like others of a similar class, are 
based upon an entire misapprehension of the facts. We only need more accurate know- 
ledge to discover a triumphant answer. That the general aspect of the desert must 
always have been what we now see is indeed certain. But no less certain is it that the 

oases which still exist 
were once far more nu- 
merous, fertile, and 
densely populated than 
now. 

In the same district is 
the Wady Mokatteb, or 
the Written Valley, so 
called from the number 
of rude inscriptions and 
sculptures with which 
the rocks are covered. 
They are not peculiar to 
this valley, but are found in many other parts of the Sinaitic range. They always 
occur in the lines of route along which caravans of traders or bands of pilgrims 
are likely to have passed, and are inscribed in the soft sandstone rock which forms the 
fringe of the harder granite in the center of the peninsula. The sculptures are grotesque 
representations of birds, camels, asses, horses, ibexes, and other animals. The inscrip- 
tions are sometimes in Greek, Latin, or Hebrew, but more commonly in a character un- 
like that of any known language. Up to a recent date, the several opinions held 
regarding the origin of these writings resolve themselves into two: the one that they 
were the work of the Israelites during their sojurn in the desert; the other that they 
were the pastime of Christian shepherds who were permanent residents, or possibly of 
Christian pilgrims in search of Mount Sinai. This qucestio vexata was settled by the 
discoveries of the late Professor Palmer, who showed that the character is simply " another 
phase of that Semitic alphabet whose forms appear alike in the Hebrew, Arabic, and 
Greek," or, as it may be explained in other words, constitutes an intermediate link be- 
twixt the Cufic and ordinary Hebrew. Professor Beer refers to a stone in Wady Mo- 
katteb on which there was a bilingual inscription ; Mr. Palmer also discovered it, and 






FLINT IMPLEMENTS FROM THE SINAITIC PENINSULA. 



1 Exodus xii. 38 ; xxiv. 5. 



2 Exodus xvii 8- 




M 

<! 

to 

3 

i 

(S 
ft 

ft 
O 



ft 
«4 



-4 
m 
ft 
P 

CO 



EGYPT TO SINAI. 

states that there can be no doubt that the Greek and Sinaitic writing of which the in- 
scription consists was executed by the same hand. Nor is this a solitary instance. These 
writings, hitherto supposed to be of so great an age, are only detached sentences, in an 
Aramaean dialect, "a great many of them being proper names, with here and there in- 
troductory formulas such as Oriental peoples have been from time immemorial accus- 
tomed to prefix to their compositions." They were probably the work of pilgrims and 
traders during the earlier part of the Christian era, or for two or three centuries before 
it. The Christian signs employed denote that many of the inscribers were Christians ; 
but there is evidence to prove that a large proportion of them were Jews or Pagans. 
" The writing must have extended into the monkish times, possibly until the spread of 
El-Islam brought the ancestors of the present inhabitants, Bedouin hordes, from El- 
Hajaz and other parts of Arabia Proper, to the mountains of Sinai, and dispersed or 
absorbed that Saracen population of whom the monks stood in such mortal dread." 

Leaving the Wady Mokatteb by a boulder-strewn valley, we enter the Wady Feiran, 
the most beautiful and fertile of all the wadies in the peninsula — perhaps the only one 




THE WADY FEIRAN. 



to which these epithets can properly be applied. Some years ago it was devastated by a 
frightful inundation caused by storms of unusual violence in the mountains, which turned 
the wady into a torrent ten feet in depth. Thirty Bedouin were drowned, hundreds of 
sheep and goats perished, and upwards of a thousand palm trees were uprooted and 
washed away. Many years must pass before the traces of this destructive deluge have 
disappeared. 

At the entrance of the wady are the remains of some of those ancient buildings to 
which reference has already been made. Stone circles, and kist-vaens, curiously like 
those of our own early Celtic period, have been discovered. In some of the latter, 
opened by Mr. Lord, the bodies were found with the knees bent upon the chest, as was 
the case in all the tombs of this class examined by him throughout the peninsula. The 
significance of this fact will be understood by the students of pre-historic antiquities. In 
and around many of the graves flint implements have been found in considerable num- 
bers, but none were seen in the Wady Feiran. About seven miles beyond these ruins 

the wady expands, while the rocks are lower, with wider watercourses intersecting their 

189 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

escarpments. Scrubby little date-palms begin to appear on the patches of alluvium, as 
if placed there to mark the frontier between sterility and verdure. Farther on, acacias 
and tamarisks, with palms of more stately mien, can be descried, resembling in the dis- 
tance a coppice on a sandy plain. Several species of birds flit from bush to bush, some 
of them warbling as sweetly as an English song thrush ; the drowsy hum of insects falls 
pleasantly on the ear, while the eye experiences a delicious relief in resting upon the 
deep green foliage of the leafy trees. 

A Bedouin settlement is now reached, occupied throughout the year by a number of 
slaves employed in cultivating the soil, and gathering and preparing the fruit of the date 
palms. Many of them are negroes, others are of a lighter complexion, with thinner lips 
and less prominent cheekbones. Their Bedouin masters visit the spot at intervals to 
feast upon the products of this delightful oasis, which consist not only of dates, but grain, 
cucumbers, gourds, pomegranates, and lotuses, as well as large quantities of sugar-cane 
and tobacco. 




THE CONVENT, SINAI. 

A narrow rocky gorge having been 
passed, we enter a sandy plain sparsely 
covered with stunted tamarisk bushes. On 
the slopes of the hills are seen ruins of an- 
cient dwellings, proving the existence of 
numerous inhabitants at some former pe- 
riod. Here a magnificent view is gained of the grandest of all the mountains of the 
peninsula, Jebel Serbal. Seen from this spot, it presents to the eye of the observer a 
confused mass of peaks of varying heights, but in reality these are reducible to five well- 
marked ones, the others being more or less simply accessories. The mountain is com- 
posed of granite, and the peaks shoot up precipitously from the basement like so many 
columns. 

Turnino- a sharp angle of rock which juts out far enough into the wady to hide the 
upper palm-grove, a wonderful scene of enchantment suddenly bursts upon the view. 
On each side, and to all appearance completely shutting in this part of Wady Feiran from 
the world beyond it, immense cliffs of bare granite rock seem to tower up into the very 
clouds. Beneath the shadows of these frowning precipices a vast plantation of date palms 
flourishes in the richest luxuriance. Through the centre of the grove a rivulet of spark- 
190 



EGYPT TO SINAI. 



ling water trickles along, anon eddying mysteriously beneath the gnarled roots of a pa- 
triarchal pine, as though coyly hiding, but soon dancing out again to the music of its 
own murmuring ripple. The laughing water rushes past the tangled clusters of wild 
mint, coquetting with the blue forget-me-nots, kissing the green fronds of the dangling 
sedge grass, then tumbling at last in a miniature cascade over a low ledge of rock, is 
sucked up and consumed by the thirsty sand of the desert. Along the banks of sand 
and alluvium through which the water has cut a wide channel, grow waving groups of 
tamarisk trees, while in the patches of cultivated ground the rich crimson blossoms of the 
pomegranate eclipse all beside in splendor of color. 

Feiran is clearly a modernized form of ancient Paran — the surrounding wilderness 
being so-called from this, the most important settlement in it — but as the name is 
applied in the Bible to the whole district stretching in a north-easterly direction to the 
borders of Canaan, it is difficult to fix upon any special site. The magnificent mass of 
Serbal which arises above the wady has been 
by some writers identified with Sinai — the 
Mountain of the Law — but upon insufficient 
grounds. This question will be discussed 
hereafter in connection with Ras Sufsafeh 
and Jebel Musa. With more probability the 
site of Rephidim has been sought in this 
valley. Here the Amalekites would be 
likely to make a stand for the defence of the 
most fertile spot in their territory. The fact 
that Serbal was a sacred mountain in very 
early times, and a place of pilgrimage and 
Pagan worship, gives point to the statement 
that Moses, with Aaron and Hur, "went 
up to the top of the hill," to pray, whilst 
the battle was raging in the valley, and ex- 
plains the language of Jethro : "Now know 
I that Jehovah is greater than all gods." 
On the very spot where these idol deities 
were worshipped, the servants of the Lord 
call upon Him for help, and He proves His 
power by giving them the victory. 1 The only objection to this identification arises from 
the want of water. 2 The difficulty, however, is not insuperable. We may suppose, 
either that the host had only reached the lower part of the valley, which is barren and 
waterless, whilst the Amalekites barred the progress upward, or that, in a season of 
drought, the usual abundant supply had failed, as often happens in the present day. 

" And they departed from Rephidim, and pitched in the wilderness of Sinai, . . . and 
there Israel encamped before the mount." 3 If Feiran is rightly identified as Rephidim, 
the route of the Israelites would be by the Wady esh Sheikh. This is a broad and 
noble valley shut in by mighty hills, and in many parts shadowed by groves of tamarisk 
trees. Its southern extremity opens into the Wady ed Deir, which runs to the south- 




SUPEKIOB OF THE CONVENT. 



I Exodus xvii. 8- 



-i 5 ; xviii n. 

3 Numbers xxxiii. 15. 



2 Exodus xvii. 1-6. 



Exodus xix. 1, 2. 



191 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

west, and forms a right angle with the great plain Er Rahah. This is probably the wilder- 
ness of Sinai spoken of in the quotation just given from the Book of Exodus. The 
wady turns sharply to the right, and is contracted to a narrow gorge between the 
mountains. About half-way up this gorge is the monastery of St Catherine, as it is 
commonly called, though really it is dedicated to the Transfiguration. Its ordinary name 
is due to the traditional tomb of the saint which it contains. 



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The convent was founded by Justinian 
(a.d. 527), and was originally higher up 
the side of the mountain, perhaps even on 
the summit. It now lies at the base of 
Jebel Musa, in a narrow part of the valley 
surrounded by gardens, which are culti- 
vated by the monks and their Arab ser- 
vants. Until recently it resembled a be- 
leaguered fortress rather than a convent. 



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ENTRANCE TO THE CONVENT, SINAI. 



The only admission to it was gained by means of an aperture high up in the wall. Vis- 
itors were hoisted up by means of a crane, the windlass being worked by the monks 
inside. The most dignified personages has thus to submit to be treated like bales of 
goods. Recently the Bedouin, having become friendly with the monks, and the 



192 



EGYPT TO SINAI. 



number of visitors having increased, a gateway has been opened, though the strong 
iron-clamped door is still jealously guarded. 1 

As the sale of manna forms an important item in the income of the monastery, this 
seems the proper place to inquire whether what now passes under that name is really 
the same with the manna of the Israelites. That it is the same, and that the miracle 
consisted in an enormous increase of the quantity produced, has been maintained by 
many high authorities, against whom the charge of rationalism cannot be urged. 2 The 
sweet honey-like taste, the whitish color, the similarity of the name, and the fact that it 
must be collected before sunrise, after which time it hardens, or altogether disappears, 
have been adduced in proof of this conclusion. But the preponderance of opinion is 
on the other side, and in favor of the view that the manna was not merely increased, 
but absolutely produced by miracle. 

The various legendary marvels which the monks here, as everywhere throughout 
the East, have accumulated around their con- 
vent, need not detain us long. A glance 
will suffice for the tomb of St. Catherine and 
the shrine of the Burning Bush — the bush 
still growing out of the soil! All our interest 
is concentrated upon the one great event of 
the desert, the manifestation of the Deity to 
Moses and the camp of Israel. The tradi- 
tional peak is Jebel Musa, which rises to the 
height of 2600 feet apove the convent, 7375 
above the level of the sea. There are two 
roads to the summit. One, constructed some 
years ago by Abbas Pasha, winds round the 
mountains and is availiable for camels. The 
old road is much rougher and steeper, but is 
far more interesting. Ascending by the for- 
mer, a gradual slope leads upward for some 
distance from the convent for about two 
hours. Here a curious basin hollowed out 
of the rock is shown as the foot-print of 
Mohammed's camel! From this point the 
track becomes narrower and steeper, in one place passing through a narrow gap be- 
tween granite rocks only a few feet wide. A flight of rude stone steps now con- 
ducts to the actual summit, where a Christian church and a Mohammedan mosque 
stand side by side. The view is grand and impressive, ranging over a vast chaos of 
bare desolate peaks ; but it is difficult to convince oneself that this can be the scene of 
the giving of the law. No plain is visible in which the tribes could have encamped in 
the "wilderness before the mount " The Wady Sebaiyeh has been pointed out as an- 
swering to the requirements of the narrative, but it is too narrow and restricted in 
area, too rough and boulder-strewn, to have answered the purpose. 

> It was in this monastery that Tischendorf discovered in 1884 some fragments of an ancient Greek MS. of the Bible. In 1859, 
traveling; under the patronage of the Emperor of Russia, he was presented with the priceless treasure of the Codex Smaiticus, the oldest 
extant MS. of the New Testament. 

2 For a very elaborate and able discussion of the whole subject, see Ritter's Geography of Palestine, and the Sinaitic Peninsula 
(vol. ii. pp. 271 292). 

193 




A MONK OF THE CONVENT, SINAI. 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 

Descending by the steeper and older road, we pass, not far from the summit, a mag- 
nificent cypress tree towering up amongst the rocks. This is alleged to mark the spot 
where the Lord appeared to Elijah in fire and storm and earthquake, and spoke to him 
in " a still small voice." 1 Close by it is a chapel dedicated to the prophet, and said to 
be built over the cave to which he had retired. Leaving the plateau on which the chapel 
stands, we make our way through a narrow path in the rocks, over a flight of rugged 
broken steps, the road twisting through clefts and chasms and under crags in a bewildering 




INTERIOR Of THE CONVENT, SINAI. 

manner, till we come suddenly upon a 
remarkable archway constructed of blocks of gran- 
ite. Here, and at another similar archway a little 
lower down, the monks used to stand to shrive 

and absolve the pilgrims on their ascent, before they were permitted to tread the 
holy ground. Various legendary shrines and a spring of deliciously clear cold water, 
encircled by a luxuriant growth of maiden-hair ferns, are passed in the steep descent, 
and at length the convent is safely reached. 

Rejecting the claims of Serbal and of Jebel Musa to be regarded as the Mountain of 
the Law, the question recurs — can any peak be pointed out which does fully and com- 
pletely satisfy the requirements of the narrative? There can, I think, be no doubt as to 



I Kings xix. 



194 




-4 
•n 

S 



EGYPT TO SINAI. 

the answer. We have but to re-ascend the mountain as far as the chapel of Elijah, and 
then, instead of climbing to the peak of Jebal Musa, bear away to the north-west over 
some broken ground and through a series of ravines to reach the summit of Ras Suf- 
safeh. Here the great plain of Er- Rahah stretches away immediately below us, afford- 
ing ample space for the hosts of Israel to encamp, whilst the mountain is exposed to view 
from summit to base. The narrative, if read from this point, becomes perfectly clear. 
Each detail in the text finds its corresponding feature in the landscape. Every traveler 
admits, that if this be not the Mountain of the Law, no other spot can be found more suita- 
ble in every respect. I again avail myself of the admirable summary given by Mr. Lord, 
whose experience as an accomplished naturalist, geologist, and traveler gives his opinion 
great weight. 

" Having described the two mountains Jebel Serbal and Jebel Musa, it appears tome 
that neither the one nor the other harmonizes with the account of the law-giving as we 
read it in Exodus. First of all, an immense plain must have spread out before the 
mount — ' and there Israel camped before the mount.' Now, taking into consideration 
the number of people there were with their flocks and herds, a very wide extent of open 
space was necessarily required for the encampment ; but nowhere round Serbal is such 
a space to be found. Wady Aleyat is only a gorge completely filled with immense 
boulders, and it would be practically impossible for any large concourse of people to 
encamp in it, in front of Mount Serbal. Magnificent in all its barren immensity as 
Serbal unquestionably is, still its very height tells against its identity with Scripture 
narrative. The loudest sounds produced on the summit of the mountain would be 
but feebly heard, if they could be distinguished at all, by any persons at the base. 
And from Wady Aleyat, or indeed from any of the wadies round about Serbal, only a 
very small part of the mountain can be seen. 

" As regards Jepel Musa, the same objections may be advanced. There is no plain 
anywhere round it which can be seen from the mount, or upon the expanse of which an 
immense host of people could pitch before the mountain. Wady Sebaiyeh is the only 
wady traceable from the top of the mountain which could in any way be regarded as 
the spot of the encampment ; and this falls so short of one's anticipations as to imme- 
diately suggest that it cannot be the scene described in Scripture. This impression 
even more strongly confirmed when walking through the wady, for it then appears 
utterly impossible to obtain there the required space for a huge encampment. 

" As neither Jebel Serbal nor Musa in any way accord with the Mosaic description of 
the Mountain of Deliverance, my readers may very naturally ask, Is there not some 
other mountain in the Sinaitic group that better answers to the description given in 
the Bible ? My reply is, Yes ; and let me explain that I am simply stating the impression 
made upon my own mind, after a careful inspection of all the mountains constituting 
the upper group. 

" There is a granite hill, not of any great altitude as compared with either Jebel Musa 
or Jebel Serbal, but still rising 2000 feet above the plain of Er-Rahah, from which, if 
we steadily survey the scene which opens out right in front, we are at once struck with 
its resemblance to the place we have so often read of and pictured to our imagination. 
In the one direct : on, Wady-es-Sheikh stretches away to the right as far as the eye can 
scan the distance, like an immense level valley shut in by walls of mighty granite rocks; 

while almost in front Er-Rahah, more like a broad plain than a wady, opens out into an 

197 



THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. 



expanse of yellow sandy ground, free from rock or boulder, that comes right up to the 
very foot of the mountain, and trends away into lateral wadies and gorges also as far as 
the range of vision can follow it. At a glance from the top of Ras Sufsafeh you see 
space enough and to spare, level and sandy, for the hosts of Israel twice told to pitch 
on. Moreover, this space is in front of the mount ; and I am quite sure that any 
person could be heard in the plain below if shouting loudly from the top of Ras 
Sufsafeh. Indeed, during the stillness of the evening, when I have been wandering 
over the sandy plain of Er-Rahah, the calls of the Arab boys and girls, collecting their 
goats and sheep from amongst the dry watercourses and gorges of Ras Sufsafeh, have 
come pleasantly to my ear. This mountain I am speaking of was immediatelv in rear 

of our tents, and forms, as it were, the 
point of a ledge of loftier hills that in 
jagged outlines and cloven sides become 
gradually mixed up with and lost in the yet 
mightier mountains behind them. It would 
not be very difficult for the united ener- 
gies of a goodly host to set ' bounds ' which 
should keep the multitude from pressing 
too closely upon or ' touching the mount.' 
And so vast an extent of open unbroken 
plain, the like of which I did not see on 
any other part of the peninsula, would 
have afforded ample space for the people 
at any time to remove and stand afar off. 

" Another point connected with Sufsafeh 
as giving probability to its rank and title 
to be considered the Mount Sinai, is that 
persons coming down through the narrow 
clefts of the mountain to reach the plain 
would most assuredly hear the sounds of 
shouting and singing before they could 
catch sight of the people from whom the 
sounds came. 'And Moses turned, and 
went down from the mount, and the two 
tables of the testimony were in his hand.' 1 ' And when Joshua heard the noise of 
the people, as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.' 2 
Again, in the 18th verse, Moses replies and says, ' The noise of them that sing do I 
hear,' and then we read that as he suddenly came nigh unto the camp, he saw the 
golden calf, and the dancing, and then, and not until then, the tables are 
flung upon the ground, and dashed into fragments 'beneath the mount.' This hearing 
voices before the plain could be reached or seen is precisely what would happen at this 
very day, supposing two or three persons were making their way down from the summit 
of Mount Sufsafeh to reach either one of the lateral gullies which lead out into the plain, 
and at the same time supposing a great tumult to be raging upon Er-Rahah. Now this 
would be impossible in coming down from Jebel Musa, firstly because there exists no 

i Exodus xxxii. 15. 2 Exodus xxxii.17. 

108 




ARCHWAY ON MOUNT SINAI. 



EGYPT TO SINAI. 

plain near its base, and secondly, because the only open ground near the foot of the 
mount is visible at nearly every point of the descent; and this objection has equal force 

when applied to Serbal. 

" Then we are told in Ex. xxxii. 20 : ' And he took the calf which they had made, and 
burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made 
the children of Israel drink of it.' I have already said that there was no stream flowing 
near Jebel Musa; hence it does not harmonize with the above account. At Jebel Serbal 
there certainly was a tiny rivulet, but almost inaccessible, except by hard climbing ; and 
being so shut in by masses of granite rock it would prove a matter of impossibility for 
any number of persons to reach it at a time or drink from it, granting they did get to its 
brink. But at Sufsafeh there was a good-sized stream percolating down through the 
gorge of Lejah, which actually lost itself in the sands of Er-Rahah, and might well have 
stood for the brook upon the surface of whose waters the fragments of the golden calf 
were sprinkled." 

Egypt, Sinai, Canaan! The typical and spiritual significance of the histories which 
these names embody, have been perceived by the Church in every age. Volumes have 
been written to illustrate and enforce the lessons taught us by the House of Bondage, 
the Miraculous Deliverance, the Wilderness of Wandering, the Mountain of the Law, 
and the Promised Land. May we lay to heart one of these lessons inculcated by inspired 
teaching : 

" Ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire 
nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the 
voice of words ; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be 

spoken to them any more : but ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city 

of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 
to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to 
Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh 
better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they 
escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if 
we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven." 1 

1 Hebrews xii. 18 — 25. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 970 075 6 



